{"title":"像野火一样:在灾难面前制造谣言内容","authors":"Rebecca Ewert","doi":"10.1080/23251042.2022.2073803","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Rumors spread during disasters as community members seek information and attempt to make sense of unexpected, anxiety-producing events. While considerable sociological research has examined the transmission and spread of rumors, less attention has been given to the creation of rumor narrative content itself. Drawing on interviews with wildfire survivors in one rural Northern California county, this study shows that rumor narrative creation reflects existing cultural values and power arrangements. In a contested post-disaster landscape, rumors are used to frame new information to maintain coherence with existing cultural beliefs while reinforcing prevailing ideas about safety, deservingness, and class. In this case, rumors are created to reflect cultural schemas such as beliefs about the government and environmental protection, and normative power arrangements instantiated through symbols of spatial stigma. The data presented in this article extends research on stigma, culture, and disaster by arguing existing dominant cultural values shape the content of rumors by dictating which pieces of information are seen as reasonable and reliable, providing residents with opportunities to frame information to explain and justify unequal disaster outcomes. In disaster situations where the transmission of reliable information is especially important, local culture enables and restricts which narratives are produced, shared, and believed.","PeriodicalId":54173,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Sociology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.4000,"publicationDate":"2022-05-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"Like wildfire: creating rumor content in the face of disaster\",\"authors\":\"Rebecca Ewert\",\"doi\":\"10.1080/23251042.2022.2073803\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"ABSTRACT Rumors spread during disasters as community members seek information and attempt to make sense of unexpected, anxiety-producing events. While considerable sociological research has examined the transmission and spread of rumors, less attention has been given to the creation of rumor narrative content itself. Drawing on interviews with wildfire survivors in one rural Northern California county, this study shows that rumor narrative creation reflects existing cultural values and power arrangements. In a contested post-disaster landscape, rumors are used to frame new information to maintain coherence with existing cultural beliefs while reinforcing prevailing ideas about safety, deservingness, and class. In this case, rumors are created to reflect cultural schemas such as beliefs about the government and environmental protection, and normative power arrangements instantiated through symbols of spatial stigma. The data presented in this article extends research on stigma, culture, and disaster by arguing existing dominant cultural values shape the content of rumors by dictating which pieces of information are seen as reasonable and reliable, providing residents with opportunities to frame information to explain and justify unequal disaster outcomes. In disaster situations where the transmission of reliable information is especially important, local culture enables and restricts which narratives are produced, shared, and believed.\",\"PeriodicalId\":54173,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"Environmental Sociology\",\"volume\":null,\"pages\":null},\"PeriodicalIF\":2.4000,\"publicationDate\":\"2022-05-05\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"\",\"citationCount\":\"0\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"Environmental Sociology\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"1085\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://doi.org/10.1080/23251042.2022.2073803\",\"RegionNum\":0,\"RegionCategory\":null,\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"Q3\",\"JCRName\":\"ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Environmental Sociology","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23251042.2022.2073803","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
Like wildfire: creating rumor content in the face of disaster
ABSTRACT Rumors spread during disasters as community members seek information and attempt to make sense of unexpected, anxiety-producing events. While considerable sociological research has examined the transmission and spread of rumors, less attention has been given to the creation of rumor narrative content itself. Drawing on interviews with wildfire survivors in one rural Northern California county, this study shows that rumor narrative creation reflects existing cultural values and power arrangements. In a contested post-disaster landscape, rumors are used to frame new information to maintain coherence with existing cultural beliefs while reinforcing prevailing ideas about safety, deservingness, and class. In this case, rumors are created to reflect cultural schemas such as beliefs about the government and environmental protection, and normative power arrangements instantiated through symbols of spatial stigma. The data presented in this article extends research on stigma, culture, and disaster by arguing existing dominant cultural values shape the content of rumors by dictating which pieces of information are seen as reasonable and reliable, providing residents with opportunities to frame information to explain and justify unequal disaster outcomes. In disaster situations where the transmission of reliable information is especially important, local culture enables and restricts which narratives are produced, shared, and believed.
期刊介绍:
Environmental Sociology is dedicated to applying and advancing the sociological imagination in relation to a wide variety of environmental challenges, controversies and issues, at every level from the global to local, from ‘world culture’ to diverse local perspectives. As an international, peer-reviewed scholarly journal, Environmental Sociology aims to stretch the conceptual and theoretical boundaries of both environmental and mainstream sociology, to highlight the relevance of sociological research for environmental policy and management, to disseminate the results of sociological research, and to engage in productive dialogue and debate with other disciplines in the social, natural and ecological sciences. Contributions may utilize a variety of theoretical orientations including, but not restricted to: critical theory, cultural sociology, ecofeminism, ecological modernization, environmental justice, organizational sociology, political ecology, political economy, post-colonial studies, risk theory, social psychology, science and technology studies, globalization, world-systems analysis, and so on. Cross- and transdisciplinary contributions are welcome where they demonstrate a novel attempt to understand social-ecological relationships in a manner that engages with the core concerns of sociology in social relationships, institutions, practices and processes. All methodological approaches in the environmental social sciences – qualitative, quantitative, integrative, spatial, policy analysis, etc. – are welcomed. Environmental Sociology welcomes high-quality submissions from scholars around the world.