What purpose does the source aim to achieve?
What is the actual content of the rumor?
How recent is the rumor? In the case of Twitter: is it a retweet or the source?
What stage is the rumor in? Is it a question, an assumption, or is it already presented as fact? A rumor can go through multiple stages depending on the amount of information on a topic: something starts as 'I don't know if this is true, but' goes to 'have you heard that' to end up as 'did you know'.
Is the content factually correct?
Is the content plausible?
The medium :
On which social media is the afghanistan mobile phone number list rumor circulating? The popularity of a certain environment determines the impact of a rumor.
Are there multiple environments where it circulates?
How do these environments influence each other?
The receiver :
Who is trying to reach the source?
Does the source have a relationship to the recipients?
Does the target group relate to the topic?
Is there a potentially relevant secondary target group? To whom can the message be passed on?
Dealing with Rumors: Practical Examples
This primary analysis can be made fairly quickly and should ultimately lead to an answer to the question: what could be the effect of the rumour? Research shows that if you do not correct incorrect information and rumours are not refuted in time, situations can get out of hand and (more) unrest can arise. Research also shows that sometimes the term 'social media unrest ' is more appropriate than 'social unrest'.