The Rumor Mill or 'How Rumors Evade the Grasp of Research'.

Shifts between concepts of “graphic design” and “visual communication” offer numerous topical links and demonstrate their relevance for our research question: “How can communication designers design and steer rumor-based communication?” An interdisciplinary research team at the Bern University of the Arts (HKB) launched the project “Gerüchtekuchee” (“Rumour mill”) and conducted an experiment by planting a real-life rumor in organizational context. Results together with evidence from a literature review informed a practice application—“The Rumor Fighter”—as part of a museum exhibition, Gerücht: Museum für Kommunikation [Rumor: Museum of Communication], in Bern, Berlin, Frankfurt.