Rumour and Contemporary Public Relations

Abstract

On September 15, 2011, several parts of Nigeria claimed witness to different individuals who died as a consequence of certain telephone calls through the mobile GSM service. These witnesses claimed that certain individuals who received calls through 4911 died under mysterious circumstances. These socalled eye-witnesses spreading from Calabar, Abeokuta, Ibadan, Abuja, and several other parts of Nigeria reinforced their stories by laying claim to being witnesses at the time when the calls were received. Ironically, Independent Programme Presenters on Radio helped to underscore the story. Several panic calls were made and received from both identified and unidentified sources. It was probably Nigeria's most widespread rumour further reinforced by the media especially the radio - Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria -. Words circulated from Abuja as in all rumour cases, and quickly spread to Lagos, Minna, Kaduna, Ibadan, Abeokuta, Uyo, Portharcourt and Osogbo among others. The scientific explanation for the phenomenon seemed to be lacking as the stories spread beyond these cities. Thus justifying, Allports and Postman's postulation that rumour lays claim to a certain degree of authority for it to be believed and Omoluabi's, (cited in Oyewo (2002) explanation that crowd is the soil on which rumour thrives. However, just suddenly as it appeared, the rumour suddenly died and by September 23, it had come to be widely regarded as just improvised news! (Shibutani 1966) This paper, therefore, discusses how PR professionals can employ their skills and training to mitigate the incidence of rumour.