Research On Weibo Rumor Communication Mode And Its Evolution Based On Social Network Analysis

Over recent years,Weibo,the platform for users to discuss public affairs and air their own views,has become a breeding ground for rumors,due to the absence of gatekeepers.In the aim of punishing those who spread malicious rumors,the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate issued “the Judicial Explanation of How to Deal with Criminal Cases including Defamation by the Use of Information Network by the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme Procuratorate”,and Weibo services,one following another,have dedicated accounts to refute rumors.Many rumors,however,are still spread with impunity,because tracing the origin of rumors,in most cases,is costly prohibitive with so vast a scope and so many participants of dissemination.As a result,spreading rumors via Weibo remain a low-cost offense in China.Under these circumstances,it would have considerable practical significance and social value to examine the common characteristics of rumor propagation and see how they evolve on Weibo.The findings of this research can help competent authorities take measures in response to public opinions so that the prevention and intervention of such rumors can be institutionalized and routinized.This paper provides an overview of the domestic,foreign and online public opinions,a literature review and a discussion on the public opinion monitoring means employed by Weibo service providers,before using Social Network Analysis(SNA)approach and Weibo information life cycle to conduct a case study on the rumor that “people with an annual earning of more than RMB 120,000 will be subject to increased income tax”.The study is performed on the following two dimension.The first one is propagation patterns of Weibo rumors on the same topic and a single Weibo rumor.The patterns are examined from two perspectives: rumor propagation structure based on the entire network and opinion leader identification based on centrality.In terms of structure,a single Weibo rumor can be propagated as one of the three types: singular explosive rumors,consecutive multiple explosive rumors,or multiple triggering rumors.In response to these three patterns,the paperrecommends corresponding countermeasures.The second one is Weibo rumor evolution.There are two types: propagation path evolution and real time evolution.The former focuses on the visualization,which gives a panoramic view of the rumor propagation path so that the gatekeepers can gain a quick and full understanding of how the rumor evolves.The latter is more of monitoring and early warning value,as it enables an observation of the changes in network indicators in different periods of time.These two evolutions complement each other with their respective emphasis.This paper is an innovation in the following senses:(1)it presents a panoramic view of how rumors on the same topic propagate,along with the single Weibo rumor spreading;(2)compared with the time segmentation approach adopted by previous researches,this paper developed a continuous evolution network,which,with shorter intervals,better serves the timeliness purpose in rumor control;(3)SNA approach is employed in this study to compare the advantages and disadvantages of each indicator and describe their meanings and measurements in Weibo rumor propagation.