Finding an Effective Way of Diffusing Information Through Network Analysis of Media Repertoire

Abstract

Nowadays, users are selecting various content with diverse media sources organizing a variety of combinations of content and media sources, so called, media repertoire. While each user’s choice is being gathered, the frequent and prominent combinations emerge naturally, and usually a new opportunity comes from the emerging trend. However, internet service platform ecosystem changes rapidly and users’ media multiplexing behavior cannot be captured easily. In addition, cognitive value of users comes not from individual service but from holistic synergy of integrated services because users do not know their preference exactly before trying various combinations of internet service and media. If internet service companies such as content or platform providers wish to diffuse information or their services effectively under the rapidly changing environment, they need to read the changing trend of emerging media repertoire. To the best of our knowledge, however, there are only few studies giving strategic implications for platform and content service providers using individual media repertoire.This paper aims at figuring out how the internet service platform has evolved and finding an effective way of diffusing information using users’ media repertoire. Using network analysis, this paper draws internet service platform network which is made by linking user’s preferred internet service channel, genre, function, media, and even device and analyzes changing trend of network topology and statistical characteristics, and figures out how many communities are existed and what characteristics do the communities have as time goes by, through using community detection algorithm. This research uses a Korea information society development institute (KISDI) media panel data (2010-2014) which contains actual media usage and their preferences of approximately 10,000 people in Korea.Based on the result, this study is available to analyze of what has happened in the internet service platform ecosystem for the last five years. The result shows that the internet service ecosystem has experienced a tumultuous period to settle the trans-media environment from 2010 starting point of smart age to 2014 matured period of trans-media in Korea. Additionally, each user has not only formed distinctive media repertoire, but also contained a great deal of similarities as well. The result also shows that the trend of emerging media repertoire owns 4 to 5 communities, which suggests that internet service providers should consider the strategy of launching their service package depending on each community’s characteristics for effective diffusion of information. The thing that has not changed is the most valued virtue for users has been ‘communication’. In trans-media era and beyond, ‘communication’ is predicted as to take an influential position among others, and this finding insists that it would be difficult to seize other chances in the internet service ecosystem except for giving new value with communication.This research contributes to proposing the way of drawing ‘internet service platform network map’ based on the preferred internet service providers by users, which is bottom-up style methodology. In addition, it allows policy makers to understand the evolutionary trajectory of internet service ecosystem and find appropriate route of diffusing policy advertisement under the rapidly changing trans-media environment. It also gives managerial implication to suggest the way of creating new value and of diffusing their information or services effectively under the rapidly changing market.