Eight-Element Communication Model for Internet Health Rumors: A New Exploration of Lasswell’s “5W Communication Model”

(1) Background: Rumors are a special type of information. Based on the classic theory of the communication of information, the “5W” communication model, this article aims to build a new model and thus explains the generation and communication of Internet health rumors. (2) Methods: The authors selected 50 Internet health rumors, which were widely spread in widely used websites and social media in China, then grounded theory is used to perform the qualitative analysis of the Internet health rumors. (3) Results: Three Core Concepts are abstracted after qualitative analysis. An internal dynamic mutual assistance mechanism of the communication of rumors is built and illustrated. Based on Lasswell’s “5W” communication model, the authors develop an eight-element communication model for Internet health rumors to illustrate the generation and communication of Internet health rumors. (4) Conclusions: By removing one or several elements of this new model, the chain of the communication of Internet health rumors could be cut off, which is valuable information for the government or websites to manage communication of Internet health rumors.