網路謠言的跨國傳播現象初探

An Exploratory Study on the Transnational Dissemination Phenomenon of Internet Rumors

謠言是一種古老的現象，過去謠言多透過口耳相傳的方式流傳，但網路所具備的特性改變人類傳遞謠言的方式。本研究在觀察國內及國外所流傳的網路謠言後，發現許多在台灣地區以及國外地區流傳的網路謠言內容非常相似，因此推測，在台灣地區所流傳的部分謠言，極可能是從國外所流傳之謠言內容中擷取某一段原文直接翻譯或改編而來，這也使得網路成為跨國傳播謠言的媒介。本研究蒐集台灣地區及國外闢謠網站上所收錄之網路謠言，並採用內容分析法針對內容相同或相近的網路謠言進行歸納及比較。分析結果發現，在台灣地區的謠言中，有25％的謠言是從國外謠言翻譯或改編而來，顯示已有相當多比率的謠言有跨國傳播的現象，進一步分析其內容發現，翻譯謠言多為負面且不實的訊息，另外，謠言在傳遞的過程中也有刪減、強調、同化、滾雪球等現象產生。

Rumor is an ancient phenomenon. In the past, it was usually passed along from person to person orally. However, the Internet has changed the way people transmit the rumors. We found that the content of some prevailing Internet rumors in Taiwan are the same with as or similar to those spread in the other foreign countries. Therefore, it could be conjectured that some rumors in Taiwan were possibly translated from or adapted to Chinese from the overseas originals; in other words, the Internet is also a form of mass media that facilitates the spread of rumors abroad. This paper collected the Internet rumors from four websites in Taiwan and in other foreign areas and adopted content analysis to find out the similarities and differences between the Chinese translations and the originals. The results reveal that twenty-five percent of the Internet rumors in Taiwan are translations, thus the transnational dissemination phenomenon does exist in Taiwan. Moreover, most of the translated rumors are not only negative but also false, and they involve the several kinds of processes along the communication chain: reduction, accentuation, assimilation and snowballing effect.