The Complex Network Of "Weibo" Public Opinion

In recent years, the number of public emergencies is increasing fast, and alwaystriggered some crisis of public opinion. With the development of Mobile Internet, theproportion of Internet users which are using the "Weibo" reaches54.7%at the end ofDecember2012, of which nearly65.6%of "Weibo" users who are access it throughtheir mobiles.The research will build a network architecture matrix model of the "Weibo" mediabased on the SNA method, and concluding the evolution and mechanisms of thenetwork, make suggestions of correct media guidance. The research will choose thenetwork big incident "A baby had been stolen in a car in Changchun city" as a case,then follow by a series of survey of this incident in it entire cycle. The second step isusing Peking University "PKUVISvisual" software to generate propagation path andusers’ groups of each "Weibo" information, then create a records database of all theinformation which is related to the incident. The third step is using UCINET softwareto generate dissemination network structure matrix models of each key point,thenanalysis the evolution characteristics of the models.The output of this research show that the "A baby had been stolen in a car inChangchun city" incident’s public opinion has a stable and high-density propagationnetwork, which can achieve rapid and direct interpersonal communication, but thenetwork is lack of two-way feedback mechanism between the groups of network publicopinion, the links of inter-group relations is easy to influenced by the external factors.With the forwarding level increasing, the power and the control of network linksbetween nodes of "Central Node" is drilling down based on the degree. In thedevelopment of public opinion, the network is changing from the stable state ofspherical to radiation link status, the number of "Central Node" is increasing, the links between nodes is changing from a single level to multi-level. The information transfertype in the "Follower Groups" is similar to the "Star Structure" with radiation diffusionmodel, but it’s lack two-way communication mechanism, the problem is not conduciveto inter-group communication and information sharing.This paper argues that the public opinion of "Weibo" now facing two problemswhich is lacking a feedback mechanism and need to expand the group communicationchannels. On the basis of keep the channel of information smooth and transparency, thebest way to solve the problem is to strengthen the establishment of information channelsbetween "Opinion Leaders", and build a information loop channel of the public opinionnetwork. And to make up for the lack of information channels between "FollowerGroups", a variety of interactive information channel should be applied.