Research Report: The Influence of Political Rumors on Undecided Voters

This report delves into the controversial topic of political rumors and their impact on undecided voters during elections. It begins by defining political rumors as artificial stories circulated to disseminate misinformation, often spread through social media, with the intent to influence public opinion and gain political advantage. The report poses research questions to examine how political rumors affect undecided voters, using the 2016 US presidential election as a case study. It explores the roles of media, the speed at which rumors spread, and the factors influencing voters' decisions. The report also analyzes whether rumors can be used as effective tools to sway undecided voters, the reasons behind voter indecision, and methods for handling political rumors, emphasizing the significance of undecided voters in the political arena. The research methodology involves reviewing how the political rumor affects the undecided voters and the factors that influence the rumors. The report concludes that political rumors have a substantial impact on undecided voters, highlighting the need for critical analysis of information and media consumption.

Running head: RESEARCH METHOD
Research method
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Table of Contents
Introduction to the research topic:..............................................................................................2
Research questions.....................................................................................................................3
Correlation of the research question..........................................................................................5
Reviewing the research methods:...............................................................................................6
References..................................................................................................................................7

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Topic: How do political rumors effect undecided voters during elections?
Introduction to the research topic:
Rumors are one of the most controversial elements of the society. The rumors are
circulated for a specific purpose. The political rumors specially fall under this category. They
are regarded to be the artificial stories. They are created to circulate wrong information to the
society. They are generally spread mouth to mouth (Barber 2017). However many critics
have observed that there is a difference between the political rumor and the normal rumor.
Rumors are generally to intend to affect the opinion of the public. The aim of political rumor
is to invert the political scenario and seek some kind of advantage from the same. It is used as
a tool to influence the decision of the public and to change their decision of making any
decision. The rumors generally do not have any authentic proof (Meraz 2015). This study will
analyze the issues that are related to the political rumor. With the help of some research
questions the study aims to understand the situations under which the rumor is being created
and the factors that are responsible for the same. The most important part of the study is the
effect of the rumor on the undecided voters. The undecided voters implies to those voters
who have not taken the decision whom to vote (Maarek 2014). The research questions act as
a guide to understand the ways in which the political rumors affect the decision of the
undecided voters and the consequences of the same. In order to understand this in a more
clear way the example of the election process held during Donald Trump in USA against
Mrs. Clinton (Clementson 2018). This report gives the opportunity to make a research on all
the aspects that are related to the political rumor. In case of political rumor, the rumor is
spread by one political party against the other party for the sake of their own good. In this
context the role played by social media is huge. They act as a strong medium to spread the
rumor in front of the mass (LeBas 2018). The research includes the situations when the
political rumors will impact on the voters who have not yet decided to whom they want to

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cast their vote. The research questions makes the study easy and the structure of the research
question makes the aspects of the political rumor clear (Wintersieck, Fridkin and Kenney
2018).
Research questions
RQ 1 What is the way in which the undecided voters are affected by the political rumors?
This question serves as a guide to extract the uncertain situations that occur during
the elections. It will further assist in comprehending the influence that the political rumor
have on the undecided voters. The undecided voters can easily be influenced as they have not
yet taken the decision of voting one particular political party. The rumor creates a bad image
of the party which acts as a manipulation for the undecided voters. They would definitely not
want not to give the vote to the one who have a bad reputation.
RQ 1.1 what is the role of media in spreading the political rumor?
This question helps to understand the approach of media in the spread of the rumor.
The importance of media is understood with the help of this question. The study of electronic
media is effective to understand the role of media in spreading the rumor.
RQ 1.2 Can a particular candidate achieve the political advantage in case he talks against the
rumor?
With the help of this question, the importance of the public speaking and the options
related to it are understood with the help of this question. This will include the impact the
public speaking on the voters.
RQ 1.3 How fast does the voters gets affected by the rumors in a specific territory?

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The voters stay in territory that is greatly influenced by the political rumors. This
question serves to understand the rate of speed of the rumor which is mostly political in
nature.
RQ 1.4 Does the rumor have the capability to shift away the desired votes that is expected
from one particular booth?
This will help to clear the impact of the rumor on the undecided voters. There are
certainly some factors in the rumor that affects the decision of the undecided voters. This
questions aims to develop the factors that have a huge impact on the decisions related to
voting.
RQ 1.5 Does the rumors have the negative effect on the voters, while they are left undressed
for a longer period of time?
The questions intends to study whether the rumors have a strong effect on the voters.
The question gives rise to a fact that these rumors are left unaddressed for a longer period of
time.
RQ 2 Can the rumors regarding the political issues be treated as an effective tool in order to
influence the undecided voters?
RQ 2.1 What is the reason that the voters are not able to decide in some specific area?
This would help to analyze the major reasons that lies behind the undecided votes of
the voters. The voters are in some kind of confusion and this is the reason they are unable to
take decision. This question helps to analyze the reason of the same.
RQ 2.2 In what ways can the political rumors be handled?
This question will help in factors that are needed to be adopted in order to resolve the
issues that are related to the political rumors.

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RQ 2.3 In what way does the undecided voters matters from a political point of view?
This question emphasizes on the importance of the undecided voters in the political
arena. The question has been developed from the view point of the political arena. They have
great impact on the results on the election.
RQ 2.4 Does the media uses the political rumors as a weapon for contests in a political
scenario?
This research question has helped to address the use of the political rumors in
different context.
RQ 2.5 How can the positive campaigning work better in the case of handling the political
matters?
The particular question helps to identify the impact of the proper public speaking and
the way the positive campaigning can help in case of handling the political matters.
Correlation of the research question
The previous extract consists of the research questions that might be useful to
understand the different aspects that are related to the political rumor. The questions are
developed in relation to one another. For example, RQ 1.2 and RQ 1.3 have a relation with
one another. These two questions act as a strong persuasion from the voter while they
confront with a political rumor. The question would further help in analyzing the tools that
are used to initiate a political rumor. On the other hand the question RQ 1.5 consists of the
discussion about the addressing the perspective of the political party. The impact of the voters
can be extracted from the above the above question. The range of the undecided voters is
understood by the above area of study. The RQ 2.1 discusses the reason that has an effect on
the voters that remain confused due to some situation. The RQ 2.3 is striving to explore the

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reasons that are related to the undecided voters the views that are comprehended from RQ
2.1. The other area of concern is the campaigning that can be positive on the undecided
voters. The research questions will serve as a guide to the readers and it will enable them to
understand the topic in a better way.
Reviewing the research methods:
The maximum amount of votes makes a party win the entire contest. This is possible
in maximum times by manipulation. This is the reason of creating the rumors. The rumors are
used in this case to win the support of the mass by shattering the image of the opponent party
by a particular party. In this way Trump won the election that was held during the
presidential poll. The inclusion of the powers of the Russian government in the decisions
making process of the US government was completely a rumor. Trump made the most of it
and finally won the election against Mrs. Clinton. Through studies this can be mentioned that
the positive campaigns did not made any big difference in the decision making process of the
undecided voters. The research question sows the path to study the factors that influence the
rumors and the way they are accepted. Therefore it can be concluded that the political rumors
has a huge impact on the undecided voters.

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References
Barber, J.D., 2017. The presidential character: Predicting performance in the White House.
Routledge.
Clementson, D.E., 2018. Susceptibility to Deception in a Political News Interview: Effects of
Identification, Perceived Cooperativeness, and Ingroup Vulnerability. Communication
Studies, pp.1-23.
LeBas, A., 2018. Can polarization be positive? Conflict and institutional development in
Africa. American Behavioral Scientist, 62(1), pp.59-74.
Maarek, P.J., 2014. Politics 2.0: New forms of digital political marketing and political
communication. Trípodos. Facultat de Comunicació i Relacions Internacionals Blanquerna.,
(34).
Meraz, S., 2015. Quantifying partisan selective exposure through network text analysis of
elite political blog networks during the US 2012 presidential election. Journal of Information
Technology & Politics, 12(1), pp.37-53.
Wintersieck, A., Fridkin, K. and Kenney, P., 2018. The Message Matters: The Influence of
Fact-Checking on Evaluations of Political Messages. Journal of Political Marketing, pp.1-28.