Research on Recognition of Opinion Leaders in Sina Weibo Platform

Abstract

The formation of public opinion occurs in the process of collective action. Due to the popularity of the Internet, people can talk freely in various cyberspaces and forums. Sina Weibo is one of social platform for netizens to express their opinions, exchange information, and promote their individuality. Among these platforms, opinion leaders play an increasingly important role in the process of disseminating information. This paper takes a topic of "Human released first-ever image of black hole" on the Sina Weibo platform as a background to discuss the identification of opinion leaders on the platforms. Firstly, using the calculation method of microblog's attractiveness index, we calculate the attractive index of the microblog post of this event. Secondly, according to the attractive index, and taking Sina Weibo user information, that is, the number of fans, the ratio of fans and followers, and the number of microblogs posts as reference indexes respectively, we then calculate the identification value of opinion leaders. Finally, by comparing the size of the opinion leader's identification value, the opinion leaders of the topic are ranked and confirmed. The identification of opinion leaders on the Internet helps opinion leaders strengthen their sense of responsibility and helps the society establish a good atmosphere for online social platforms.