| Summary: | Thesis focusses on the phenomenon of rumour. This specific means of unofficial communication is widespread. Amongst academic scholars, there is no consensus regarding the definition of rumour, so thesis works with a sociological definition: rumour is a kind of unverified information that is developed in situations which are important to individuals, on one side, and ambiguous on the other. But this definition is quite new (considering the long history the phenomenon of rumour) and was developed according to theories which were tested in the twentieth century. Thesis illustrates how this phenomenon has changed throughout human history. Although the research into the field of rumours has been relatively systematically developed, a historical-sociological comparative work deal which deals with changes in the perceptions, definitions, and conceptions of rumours is still missing, so aim is to describe these changes from historical-sociological point of view, focusing on questions including where and how the concept of rumour emerged, what it originally meant, and how the concept of rumour was historically transformed.
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