The Role of Economic Rumors on the National Development and How to Deal with Them through Media (with an Emphasis on Telegram)

The Role of Economic Rumors on the National Development and How to Deal with Them through Media (with an Emphasis on Telegram) Shahram Jorjani* Afsaneh Mozaffari (PhD)** Ali Akbar Farhangi(PhD)*** The Abstract As modern information and communication technologies expand, the media is capable of communicating the events promptly all over the world. This has made the media a powerful tool in societies. The media can indeed affect societies positively or negatively. One aspect that has always been considered is the role of modern media in the development and particularly the economic development of countries. Modern information and communication technologies are considered as platforms for the widespread communication of rumors and fake news, that is, news that is deliberately contaminated by misinformation. Thus, using interviews, the present qualitative study attempted to investigate this in social networks, and in so doing, Telegram was studied as one of the most widely-used social networks in Iran. The findings showed that rumors on Telegram have different aspects and play an important role in Iran's economic development. Three approaches were identified to deal with rumors, namely educational approach, journalistic approach, and macro approach, and accordingly, suggestions and solutions were presented. Keywords: Rumor, Development, Social Network, Telegram