Media & Communication · Misinformation & Disinformation
A topic within Misinformation & Disinformation, itself one of 10 topics in that field and part of Media & Communication.
No prior grounding assumed.
Rumors, False Flags, and Digital Vigilantes: Misinformation on Twitter after the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing
Starbird et al. · 2014
Traces how false rumours accusing innocent people spread on Twitter after the Boston Marathon bombing, and argues crowdsourced 'digital vigilante'…
Assumes you know the vocabulary.
Rumor Cascades
Friggeri, Adamic, Eckles & Cheng · 2014
Tracks thousands of rumour-reshare cascades on Facebook against Snopes fact-checks and finds that public correction barely slows a false rumour's…
Primary sources and full treatments.
The Psychology of Rumor
Allport & Postman · 1947
Proposes that a rumour's strength grows with the importance of its subject multiplied by the ambiguity of the evidence around it, and traces how…
3 works
Starbird et al.
Traces how false rumours accusing innocent people spread on Twitter after the Boston Marathon bombing, and argues crowdsourced 'digital vigilante' correction attempts often amplified the very misinformation they meant to debunk.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Friggeri, Adamic, Eckles & Cheng
Tracks thousands of rumour-reshare cascades on Facebook against Snopes fact-checks and finds that public correction barely slows a false rumour's spread, while true and false cascades are structurally near-identical.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Allport & Postman
Proposes that a rumour's strength grows with the importance of its subject multiplied by the ambiguity of the evidence around it, and traces how retelling systematically sharpens, levels and assimilates the story toward what tellers already expect.