summary
As the main front of information diffusion in breaking news reports, the large-scale node network communication on the microblogging platform has broken the traditional media news reporting mechanism and information diffusion mode. Taking the "Wenling tank truck explosion" incident as the starting point, this paper uses the social network analysis method to analyze the information diffusion process of breaking news on the microblogging platform from the perspective of communication path and network structure. The results show that the network structure of single-level communication, chain communication and multi-level communication is combined in the microblogging platform, and the information production and diffusion of government official sources still occupy an absolute advantage. In the network structure of user interaction and information forwarding, the higher the relationship level, the larger the relationship scale, and the higher the relationship efficiency, the higher the network density, centrality, central trend, and relationship distance of the information node have more advantages in information dissemination in crisis communication.
With the development of strong relationship social platforms, the communication relationship in the Internet space has changed, and the "circle" Internet group has become the main body of information diffusion. In the "circle" of the Internet, without the interference of external forces, public opinion will tend to be dominated by the information preferred within the "circle". This means that the field of public opinion and the pattern of communication ecology are being reconstructed by the Internet "circle" represented by Weibo and WeChat. After the occurrence of a sudden crisis event, in the process of information dissemination, the users of the network "circle" can quickly form a temporary network community based on relationship connection through forwarding, commenting, liking, sharing, discussing and other behaviors among users, so as to efficiently spread the crisis event information to other groups in a short period of time in a large-scale relationship network.
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the information diffusion mode of breaking news reports on the microblogging platform, and to investigate the impact of the "node" relationship communication mechanism of user interaction on breaking news reports. In order to further verify the interaction and relationship transformation law between Internet "circle" users in crisis communication, describe the position and role characteristics of circle users in the network structure, and analyze the important role of key roles and positions, this paper uses the social network analysis method and combines specific crisis communication cases to verify the propagation law of three variables in the relationship circle network structure of the microblogging platform: relationship network scale, structure hierarchy and relationship transformation efficiency.
1. Theoretical basis
(1) Media richness theory
Daft and Lengel (1984) proposed the theory of media richness, also known as information richness, which argues that the richness of media information affects users' media choice and information dissemination process. The richness of the media is an objective and fixed asset of the media, and it also represents the ability of the media to disseminate information and content. Different media have different message carrying capacity, and people can choose the medium according to the reason for communication.
As the main way for the media to provide information on breaking events to the public, breaking news reports show the characteristics of fast dissemination speed and wide coverage in the process of dissemination, and show the characteristics of top-down and one-to-many communication. Based on the establishment of large-scale "circle network" in the Internet era, the diversity of users and the complexity of the interaction relationship of the "circle network" make various uncertainties in the communication of Internet groups. Combined with the path of public opinion dissemination, i.e., single-level communication, chain communication and multi-level communication, this paper analyzes the information diffusion mode of breaking news reports in the microblogging platform and explores the dissemination law of emergency information.
(2) Social network theory
A network is made up of relationships between participants (also known as "nodes"), and social network theory describes the structure and properties of the interactions between individuals or nodes in a social network. Depending on the perspective, there are two major elements of social network theory: the relational element and the structural element. The relational element focuses on the social interaction between individuals and network nodes, that is, the behavior and process of network interaction are explained by density, intensity, symmetry, scale, etc. Structural elements focus on the location of network nodes and explore the social structure reflected by the relationship between two or more actors and other nodes. Together, relational and structural elements have an important impact on the flow of information and the social relations between individuals.
In the process of disseminating breaking news reports, their network structure can be studied by combining the relevant measurement indicators of individual network structure and overall network structure. In addition, according to the three dimensions of relationship nature, relationship hierarchy and relationship efficiency proposed by Li Biao (2021), the indicators of Internet "circles" can be divided into three aspects from the perspective of social networks, namely relationship size (group members), relationship efficiency (strong and weak relationships) and relationship hierarchy (opinion leaders). Therefore, the process of relationship propagation is the process of user interaction through the three dimensions of relationship nature, relationship hierarchy and relationship efficiency, so as to realize the effective encoding, sending, transmission, acceptance and decoding of crisis event information.
2. Research methods and design
Based on the relational data constructed by interactive adjacencies, the social network analysis method tries to find a stable communication network structure in the process of crisis communication. In order to measure and describe the process and key characteristics of the propagation of sudden crisis information in the Internet "circle" network, the propagation nodes in the center and near the center are found in the relationship network created by the adjacency relationship.
(1) Data sources
After the "Wenling tank truck explosion" accident, accounts such as "CCTV News", "People's Daily", "Wenling Release", "Wenling Fire Protection", "People's Daily Online" and "Beijing News" immediately posted the news of the accident on Sina Weibo, calling on everyone not to go to the scene of the accident to watch and give way to ambulances and fire trucks. At the beginning of the outbreak of the "Wenling tank truck explosion" incident, the crisis information was mainly disseminated and spread through the microblogging platform in the first time. Due to the large amount of data disseminated on the microblogging platform, in order to ensure the validity of the data, the snowball sampling method was used to collect the data of the Sina microblogging platform of the event.
(2) Data processing
In order to ensure the completeness of the information and the quality of the data, the time period of data search is locked from 16:40 to 19:40 on June 13, 2020, that is, within 3 hours after the explosion occurred, and the important information nodes are sampled. A total of 10,000 Weibo users' posting, forwarding and commenting data on the incident information were collected, and the interference information was excluded according to the following criteria: content unrelated to the sample event was excluded; Delete content prior to the sample event; deletion of data with no substantive content; Delete the data of similar content posted by the same account or copy other people's content, and finally obtain a valid sample to be explored and analyzed in this study.
On the basis of the above-mentioned data samples, "Wenling tank truck explosion" was used as the event keyword, and the top 100 Weibo users with the highest number of retweets for the event were searched, and five users of "Wenling Release", "CCTV News", "Beijing News", "People's Daily" and "The Paper" were randomly selected as information sources. Then, according to these 5 Weibo information sources, 5 Weibo users who were forwarded were randomly selected from each Weibo as the second batch of samples collected, including "Zhongxin Jingwei", "Jiangning Mother-in-law", "Zhejiang Release", "Observer Network", and "Beijing News We Video". Following this method, we collected samples from the 3rd, 4th, and 5th batches...... In the end, a total of 59 Weibo user data were collected. Subsequently, the collected data of 59 microblog users were constructed according to the rules of matrix data, and the 59 actors were assigned in the form of rows and columns, that is, the value of A and B is 1, otherwise it is 0, and finally the 59×59 microblog user interaction matrix is constructed.
3. Data analysis
In the social network communication ecosystem, the communication subjects of crisis events are diverse, the communication path and direction are complex and changeable, the communication boundary is constantly broken, and the complex relationship between Internet members makes the circle relationship formed by this extremely complex and changeable, and the multi-level interaction and the communication network structure of multiple central nodes determine the communication efficiency of information in the communication network. In this paper, Ucinet 6 is used as the main social network analysis tool, and the social network data is visually described with the help of NetDraw drawing function.
(1) Network density analysis
Density measurement is an important indicator of the size of the overall social network, and the more complex the fixed-scale node connections, the greater the density of the overall network community graph. Table 1 is the network graph density measurement results forwarded by Ucinet 6 to the "Wenling Tank Truck Explosion" event.
Table 1 Density measurement results of forwarding network diagrams
| BLOCK DENSITIES OR AVERAGES |
| Input dataset:C:\Users\kw\Desktop\温岭槽罐车爆炸事件数据 |
| Density(matrix average)=0.073 |
| Standard deviation=0.260 |
As can be seen from Table 1, the density of the network is relatively small, and the connections between the 59 microblog users are not very large. It can be seen that there is a lack of frequent interaction between members, and the completeness of the overall network is slightly insufficient.
(2) Analysis of online community graphs
The network community diagram is used to describe the complex relationship between the members of the network community, which is composed of points and lines, which can reflect the reciprocity and distribution characteristics of the network structure. The community matrix is used to describe the "superposition" relationship between two action nodes, for example, the values of 0 and 1 can be used to indicate whether there is a connection between the nodes. According to the results of constructing the 59×59 binary symmetric data matrix of Weibo users above, the network community diagram of the sudden information forwarding relationship of the "Wenling tank truck explosion" incident was obtained through the operation of the NetDraw function in Ucinet 6 software (see Figure 1 for details).
Figure 1 Community diagram of the "Wenling Tank Truck Explosion" incident emergency information forwarding network
The network community map can generally reflect the overall characteristics, location and role of crisis information dissemination in the first time of the "Wenling tank truck explosion" incident, especially the nodes such as "Wenling Release", "CCTV News", "Beijing News", "People's Daily" and "News Morning Post" are in the center of the information dissemination network, and they are connected with multiple nodes and play a key role in the dissemination of information in the process of dissemination of sudden information.
(3) Analysis of network centrality
According to the calculation of Ucinet 6 software, the most central information nodes in the breaking news forwarding network of the "Wenling tank truck explosion" incident are No. 1 "Wenling Release", No. 12 "CCTV News", No. 13 "Beijing News", No. 2 "People's Daily Online", etc., and their node centrality values have reached more than 10 (see Table 2). The results show that local government affairs microblogs and news and information accounts have the most communication advantages and the most communication power for breaking news reports of crisis events, and play a very prominent role in promoting the diffusion of emergency information, and they can connect all members to work together to spread and disseminate. Table 2 Centrality results (47 Weibo users are omitted here)
From the perspective of the propagation path of breaking news reports, the nodes with high node centrality are composed of single-level propagation mode and chain propagation mode. Specifically, "Wenling Release", as the node with the highest centrality, is connected with the secondary nodes "CCTV News", "People's Daily", "Beijing News" and "People's Network", and presents a single-level communication mode with "Wenling Release" as the central node and secondary nodes distributed around, constituting the mainstream government affairs and news information information network, which plays a key role in the diffusion process of emergency information. As an "opinion leader" in the network, "Wenling Release" has a strong influence on local information dissemination. In addition, the communication combination of the information center composed of mainstream media and the connection of self-media accounts expands the scope of information reported by breaking news and promotes the deepening of the level of information dissemination.
(4) Proximity centrality analysis
Proximity centrality measures the distribution of distances close to the central node, taking into account the interaction capacity of the overall network. Ucinet 6 software was used for proximity centrality analysis.
Proximity to centrality measures the degree to which an actor is not controlled by the core node, and is generally the most effective way to measure opinion leaders. Generally speaking, the least affected and controlled actors are the closest to the high centrality of the location node, and the less likely their ability to obtain information is controlled by the other nodes. In the emergency information dissemination network of the "Wenling tank truck explosion" incident, the closer the nodes are to the location of the source, such as "Jiangning Mother-in-law", "Sina Zhejiang", "Zhejiang Release", "Wenqing Qingqing", etc., the higher the centrality of these nodes, the more independent their ability to obtain information, and the more effective the information interaction between these nodes and other actors in the emergency information dissemination network, the more effective they are in transmitting information, and the more obvious their role as opinion leaders.
From the perspective of the propagation path of breaking news reports, the nodes close to the higher centrality value form a composite path of single-stage and chain propagation mode with "Wenling Release" as the central node and spreading to the surrounding areas. Nodes with strong ability to obtain information can often form a secondary communication network within the community after obtaining information, and realize more efficient interaction and transmission of information reported by breaking news under the combination of single-level communication mode and extended chain communication mode.
(5) Analysis of network structure holes
Generally, the value of structural cavities is measured by four indicators: effective scale, efficiency, grade and limitation. Effective scale measures the degree of network duplication, and the larger the data, the less redundant it is, the less repetitive, and the more likely it is that there will be structural holes. Efficiency is a measure of the degree to which an actor has an impact on other individuals, and the higher the value, the greater the influence and the more likely it is that there will be structural holes. The degree of restriction is a measure of the degree of connection between the nodes in the network and the degree of closure of the network, the lower the data, the more open the network is, and the more likely there are structural holes.
In the structural hole analysis of the emergency information forwarding network of the "Wenling tank truck explosion" incident (see Table 3), according to the order of the degree of restriction from small to large, it can be seen that the top ones are "Wenling Release", "Beijing News", "CCTV News", "People's Daily", "People's Daily Online", "News Morning Post", "Beijing News Our Video" and "Voice of Zhejiang". The effective scale of these nodes is relatively high, and the efficiency value is also at a high level, and the hierarchical position is also relatively high. In particular, the "Wenling Release" has the lowest degree of restriction, indicating that the lower the repetition of the information released by the "Wenling Release", the more the source of first-hand information has the advantage of information release. At the same time, the efficiency and effective scale of the "Wenling Release" are also the highest, indicating that its position in the emergency information dissemination network of the "Wenling Tank Truck Explosion" incident is very important.
Table 3 Hole analysis of information forwarding structure
In addition, among the hierarchical indicators, the highest value is "CCTV News", which is twice as high as accounts such as "Wenling Release" and "People's Daily Online", indicating that in the process of spreading this crisis event, "CCTV News" is more likely to become an opinion leader. On the contrary, although the number and value of structural holes in the overall network structure of individual netizen users are generally low, self-media accounts such as "Wenqing Qingqing", "Milk Milk Ting" and "Zhiyi Nanfeng" also occupy a relatively important position, indicating that in addition to government affairs media and mainstream media, some self-media are in an important position in the information diffusion of emergencies.
IV. Conclusion
According to the analysis of the social network of the "Wenling Tank Truck Explosion" incident, the structural characteristics and information diffusion law of such emergencies as the "Wenling Tank Car Explosion" in the Internet "circle" are revealed, and the main findings are as follows:
First, from the perspective of centrality and proximity to centrality, it is found that nodes such as "Wenling Release", "CCTV News", "Beijing News", "People's Daily" and "News Morning Post" are in the center of the information dissemination network and are not easily controlled by other actors. In this process, the information propagation path is composed of a single-level propagation mode and a chain propagation mode.
Second, from the perspective of proximity centrality analysis, the proximity centrality of nodes such as "Jiangning Mother-in-law", "Sina Zhejiang", "Zhejiang Release" and "Wenqing Qingqing" is the most recent, indicating that some important Weibo real-name accounts and some self-media accounts also play an important role as intermediaries or opinion leaders in the process of diffusion of emergency information. The nodes with high values close to centrality form a composite propagation path of single-stage and chain propagation mode with the central node as the main node and spreading to the periphery.
Thirdly, from the perspective of network structure analysis, the effective scale, efficiency and grade of these nodes such as "Wenling Release", "Beijing News", "CCTV News", "People's Daily", "People's Daily Online", "News Morning Post", "Beijing News Our Video" and "Voice of Zhejiang" are relatively high, and the source and diffusion of first-hand information have more communication advantages. In addition to mainstream government affairs and news and information media, self-media accounts take advantage of the complexity and diversity of community relationships in Internet "circles" to collaborate with mainstream media to promote the information diffusion of breaking news reports in emergencies.
To sum up, with the continuous development of mobile Internet technology, the user relationship in the Internet "circle" has become complex and changeable, and user interaction and relationship transformation have also become an inevitable phenomenon in crisis communication. Therefore, this study effectively explores the mechanism of user interaction and relationship transformation in crisis communication, and demonstrates the information diffusion of breaking news reports in the platform from the perspective of communication path and network structure. In the relationship network communication, the smaller the identity gap between individual netizens, the more significant the effect of crisis communication, that is, those individuals who are close to the central node in the social network structure, or the closer the relationship with other nodes, are more likely to play the role of intermediaries or opinion leaders in the information process. In addition, in the communication of relationship networks, the higher the relationship level, that is, the higher the status in the circle, the more authoritative the identity authentication, the higher the personality evaluation index, the higher the professional and technical level, the better the image evaluation, and the higher the social popularity, the more significant the effect of crisis communication. In other words, the higher the centrality of the nodes in the social network structure, the less likely it is to be controlled by other actors, and the stronger its ability to produce and disseminate information in the first place.
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