Polarized Crowd or Community Clusters? An Analysis of Group Networks on an Online Discussion Forum

• In Event: 136 - Open Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 05. Technology, Gender and Interaction

Abstract

Recently, social media have become popular venues for public discussions, debates and interaction. As the new public sphere, social media conversations are as important as any other large public gathering. This study aims to map discussion networks on a popular bulletin board system (PTT) in Taiwan and investigate the roles of social media in leading online world toward whether polarized or diversified networks. Network maps of public social media discussions on online forums provide insights into the role social media plays in our society. Social network analysis is employed in this study to examine and compare network structures in the most popular discussion forum (PTT) in Taiwan. This paper will map the PTT forum networks for several controversial political and social events to examine whether user exposure to cross-ideological political interaction or they tend to affiliate with those who shared similar views of world. In addition, this paper will examine social-related public issues to compare whether their network structures differ from political networks.

Authors

• Shu-Fen Tseng, Yuan-Ze University

• Chen Hung-Chun