“If your roommate dies, you get a 4.0”: Reclaiming rumor with Burke and organizational culture

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1999

Abstract

The study argues for a reconsideration of rumor from an interpretive perspective. The study articulates a theoretical perspective that combines organizational culture with Burke's guilt-purification-redemption cycle. The perspective is then used to study the rumor, “If your roommate dies, you get a 4.0.” The study concludes that students use the rumor to make sense of and to cope with problematic aspects of their university-life pertaining to roommates, academic pressures, and hierarchical relations between students and the university administration.

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Original Publication Citation

Scheibel, Dean. (1999). “If your roommate dies, you get a 4.0”: Reclaiming rumor with Burke and organizational culture. Western Journal of Communication, 63 (2), 168-192. DOI: 10.1080/10570319909374635

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