Which types of accounts on Weibo gain more attention during COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The current study aimed to examine which kind of Weibo accounts has the most influence when sharing COVID-19 related information. 247 Weibo accounts were divided into five categories: universities, celebrities, authoritative media, medical institutions and government departments. Using these accounts to form a virtual social network, calculate the mean, variance and standard deviation of Katz Centrality of each category of users which is combined with calculating the average number of likes, comments and retweets of each blog of each category users to find a more influential class. According to the research finding, celebrities have the most influence on general users, followed by authoritative media. However, combined with Katz Centrality, it can be found that celebrities have the least influence on social networks formed by accounts with a large amount of followers, while authoritative media is more influential in these two dimensions. Although more research is needed to investigate the relationship between social media platforms and the outbreak of COVID-19, findings suggest influential accounts should ensure the accuracy of their information so as not to mislead the public.