Dimensions Of Leadership And Social Influence In Online Communities

Internet forum is an information sharing platform developing continuously with theadvancement of internet technology. Internet forum has greatly facilitated thetransmission of information and people’s access to information since its emergence. Ithas also become an important tool for people to know about external social environmentand an assistant of study, daily life and entertainment. Meanwhile, as a platform forspreading and sharing information, Internet forum presents new characteristics andfollows new laws in the aspect of influencing and guiding public opinion. Thecommunication of public opinions has always been one of the hot research issues, ofwhich new perspectives and directions of research keep emerging with the developmentof mass communication media.The aim of this thesis is to conduct a research on the “internet opinion leaders” byinvestigating the communication behaviour of influential netizens, who trigger messagereplies,spark conversation, and diffuse language..The data employed by this essay isbased on the analysis of the top ten posts in the section “The public opinions of ourCommunity” of Tanya BBS and the investigation of the top30IDs of every post. Clusteranalysis software was applied in this essay to reveal the characteristics of the behavioursof the “online opinion leaders”. Investigation results show that the “internet opinionleaders” establish their influence by frequent on-line communication, includingtransmitting information and opinions, and paying close attention to the remarks of others.After the research of characteristics of a network of opinion leaders, from two anglesin the online and offline analysisof the influence of opinionleaders: online,theyhavecreated a hot event, and guide public opinion through agendasetting; offline, anetwork of opinionleaders and traditional media interaction, even influence the real life.