Revisiting Gossip v. Rumor

This blog draws a distinction between rumor and gossip. While each can contain elements of the other, gossip is defined here as the sharing of potentially harmful, strictly personal news between two or more individuals about a third. A rumor is the transmission of information, such as a guess that a company may be sold or that a new CEO is coming on board. The study of rumor typically focuses on the accuracy or inaccuracy of the information that is being transmitted. Gossip, on the other hand, is only incidentally interested in the truthfulness of what is being talked about. Gossip is about being exciting, juicy, scandalous, spicy, salacious and sensational regardless of truth.

While both involve the informal sharing of information, primarily based on personal relationships, I see a significant difference between the two both in content and tone. What we are interested in is the destructive content and tone of gossip not the accuracies and inaccuracies of the informal spread of information through the grapevine of an organization. On the other hand, gossip and rumor collide when gossip is spread by way of the grapevine. In this case, gossip becomes the subject matter of rumor. It is the vibrancy of the grapevine that explains how gossip can quickly be transmitted throughout an organization.