Interpersonal Communication Networks Research Articles

The Influence of Opinion Leaders on Consumer Buying Behavior Among Millennials in Klang Valley

Opinion leaders have emerged as individuals with social influence who serve as the core of an interpersonal communication network. The social trends have made opinion leaders significantly influence buying behavior, especially among millennials. A deeper understanding of the characteristics of opinion leadership is still needed and based on the two-step flow theory, we developed a research framework to study opinion leaders’ influence (trust, credibility, and originality) on consumer buying behavior. A simple random sampling method was used, and the sample comprised 398 millennials in Klang Valley, Malaysia. Data were collected via a self-administered questionnaire. Regarding the relationships involving the opinion leaders’ elements, Pearson correlation analysis found that the trust (r=0.545; p=0.00), credibility (r=0.518; p=0.00), and originality (r=0.398; p=0.00) of opinion leaders are significantly related to consumer buying behavior. Multiple regression analysis was then applied to examine the most influential opinion leader factors on millennials’ buying behavior. The result showed that this model contributed a total of 30.7% and that trust (β = 0.368, p = 0.000) is the most influencing factor on millennials buying behavior. Marketers will have an updated perspective on the influence of opinion leaders on consumer buying behavior knowing the profiles of opinion leaders is extremely beneficial for consumers to make wise purchase decisions.

Examining the dynamics of interpersonal communication networks for disaster coping among a multiethnic community

ABSTRACT Interpersonal communication networks serve as a critical source of disaster support, yet their dynamic role in disaster coping remains less explored. Drawing from the literature on resilience organizing and network social capital, the current study investigates how individuals from diverse backgrounds re-construct their interpersonal communication networks in response to an emerging disaster and the impact of such networks on disaster-coping outcomes. Using a community survey of multiethnic residents affected by the 2021 Texas Winter Storm, we found that individuals re-constructed their communication networks by developing more racially heterogeneous and stronger interpersonal ties in response to the disaster, and these patterns varied across major ethnic groups. Moreover, individuals’ preexisting interpersonal communication relations both facilitated and constrained their disaster network reconstruction.

A STUDY ON PERCEIVED KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND BEHAVIOUR TOWARDS ACCEPTANCE OF THE COVID-19 VACCINE AMONG THE PEOPLE OF SABAH

The Malaysian government vaccination drive to curb the Covid-19 virus has received with mixed responses from the citizen. To manage the vaccination drive, the government urge the people to register their interest using a mobile apps called MySejahtera. However, in Sabah, the state located in Borneo Island the response was very slow. Therefore, this study aims to uncover the perceived knowledge, attitude, and behaviour among the people in Sabah toward the Covid-19 vaccine. It also aimed to find out the proportion of people who accept, refuse and indecisive in getting the vaccine. A survey was administered to 985 respondents inclusive of citizen and the undocumented from Sabah’s three largest urban centres. Both data collection procedures were conducted throughout March 2021.The result shows the overall perceived knowledge, attitudes and perceived behaviour among respondents were positive towards the vaccine. Information seeking and sharing behaviour about vaccines among the respondent are on the high side. Only 50.3% of the respondents indicated that they are willing to receive the vaccine, 27% are indecisive and 22.7% indicated refuse. Female respondents are more positive towards the vaccines. There is no significant difference between age group as well as between the economic background. The study implies that there was a need to have an additional key message on the content, development and how the vaccines work. Specific key messages for the undocumented need to be formulated to increase their overall experience with the vaccine. An investment in Interpersonal communication network was needed in engaging the fence-sitter.

Carceral communication: Mass incarceration as communicative phenomenon

This article introduces the concept of carceral communication to focus attention on the role of communication in mass incarceration’s racialized, criminal justice process. To argue that a communication perspective helps explain how individuals, neighborhoods, and prisons are linked together, the article uses publicly available indictments that charged three New York City youth gangs with violent crimes. It identifies three facets of carceral communication to demonstrate how and why mass incarceration is a communicative phenomenon. First, computer-mediated communication (CMC) has become the most sought-after type of criminal evidence because of its visibility and permanence. Second, law enforcement uses the interpersonal communication and neighborhood networks of incarcerated Black men for crime control and surveillance purposes. Third, carceral communication operates as a communication feedback process, in which marginalized, young, Black men under surveillance know they are being watched and respond to that surveillance with resistance that is also subject to criminalization.

A bottom-up simulation on competition of online interpersonal communication platforms.

The competition of interpersonal communication platforms is a complex process affected by various factors. This paper aims to simulate and analyze this process from a bottom-up perspective. Individual platform selection serves as the micro-foundation for the study. The evolution of online interpersonal communication networks, and innovations proposed by online interpersonal communication platforms, would also impact this process by affecting individual selection on those platforms. Three scenarios were designed for this study to simulate typical modes of competition. In this regard, the simulation results were compared to practical cases. Taken together, this bottom-up simulation model could reproduce and anticipate the applied competition process associated with such platforms. Based on this model, it was found that, in any case, one online interpersonal communication platform will eventually monopolize the market, either partly or entirely. The late entrant platform, comprising a major innovation, tends to fail when competing with the incumbent monopoly due to “network externalities.” Even when two competing platforms continue to propose innovations, and they will alternately lead the competition due to those innovations, this type of replacement of their competitive positions in the market may only occur a few times and then disappear completely.

PSYCHOLOGICAL FEATURES OF ORGANIZATIONAL COMPETENCE AMONG ІТ-PROFESSIONALS

The article shows that effective mutual relations between specialists of information technologies and their business-clients are one of fundamental factors of successful acquisition of competitive advantages through the use of ІТ. It is proven that the psychological profile of an ІТ-specialist gradually changes from such, where technical skills play a primary role, on such, where ability to form and support business relationships is equally important. It is argued that ability to form and support such relations tends to be one of key organizational features among ІТ-professionals. Communication and mutual understanding between parties of the process are the most important factors of creation of favourable relations. It is shown that knowledge is the most strategically important resource in resource-centered models of enterprise, knowledge also has organizational potential which comes forward as a source of competitive advantages. In the new knowledge economy human capital of an enterprise, its labor force, forms the major strategic asset. In particular, human capital in information technologies is critically important for establishment of partner relations between business and ІТ. Thesis is analyzed that in order to develop such relations ІТ specialists must understand and participate actively in the processes of the strategic planning of their business partners. It is underlined that business competence among ІТ-specialists could be defined as a set of business and interpersonal knowledge, abilities and skills of ІТ specialists, which enable them to understand business domain, use the business language, and co-operate with business partners. Such competence represents understanding of business domain on every level. Conclusion is drawn that organizational competence of ІТ professionals combines knowledge and ability from two wide categories: organizational-concrete knowledge and interpersonal/administrative knowledge. Each of these two categories is formed by combination of more concretely-specific areas of knowledge. Description of organization, organizational subdivisions, organizational responsibility and integration of business and ІТ, form organizational-concrete knowledge; skills of interpersonal communication, leadership and knowledge network create interpersonal and administrative knowledge.

An Analysis of Millennial Farmers’ Communication Networks on Hydroponic Vegetable Marketing Topics Via Whatsapp Application (Hydroponic Farmers in Situbondo)

The large-scale social restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic have hampered the communication process for millennial hydroponic farmers in Situbondo. The farmers could not have their regular offline meetings. As such, they started to switch to the Whatsapp messaging application to communicate. However, the switch was done without prior need analysis, so there was no guarantee of whether the application could meet their need to communicate. This study aimed to analyze the interpersonal communication network, WA media gratification, and the relationship between the two. The communication network method was used in this study by interviewing 108 respondents through a nominalist approach and positional strategy, small group sampling followed by intact sampling. Data were analyzed using the Communication Network Analysis program UCINET Version 6.0, descriptive analysis, and analysis of variable relationships using the SPSS Version 21. The results showed that the whole network consisted of actors from various professions and backgrounds from Situbondo and outside Situbondo. The communication network structure formed a wheel with the dominance centrality degree, closeness, betweenness, and eigenvector actors by three hydroponic farmers with codes 41, 47, and 105. The level of WA media gratification, included the use and satisfaction obtained by hydroponic farmers, was very high on information, socialization, and social support. The relationship between interpersonal communication networks and WA media gratification showed a significant and very significant relationship for socialization and social support.

SOCIAL MEDIA – INSTRUMENT OF THE INFORMATION WARFARE. FROM INFORMATION TO INFLUENCING –

Information is a very valuable weapon, in can help in manipulation and it can result in changing behaviours and actions. Information warfare in the cyber environment can be considered the most developed form of warfare, through which the goal is achieved without human loss and without bloodshed. While many studies and researches have been conducted on the “weapons of attack” of this unconventional war, fake news and propaganda, since ancient times, less has been written about “weapons of defence” counteracting and combating their effects, and scientific studies and research are still far from finding the answer. In this article, we aim to analyse both the main weapon of attack: communication, as a method (technique, tactics) of transmitting fake news and propaganda and the main means of conducting information warfare, social media, by the force (speed) of the dissemination of communication. We will make this analysis starting from the origin and characteristics of interpersonal communication and social networks, which we will identify in disciplines such as psychology, sociology, social psychology and anthropology and show how each of these areas contributes to shaping the lives of users of virtual social networks. They can thus be used in information warfare. In our approach, we start from the hypothesis that communication aims to influence, the social network broadens the communication environment and promotes influence, and the Internet makes the communication process take place at the mass level, amplifies the speed of dissemination, which further accentuates influencing and recommending social media as a tool in the information war. We also aim to analyse this process of modelling (influencing) from socio-psychological perspectives to highlight how propaganda and fake news in social media work and how they could be countered using simple principles of communication and psycho-sociology.

SOCIAL MEDIA – INSTRUMENT AL RÃZBOIULUI INFORMAÞIONAL. DE LA INFORMARE LA INFLUENÞARE –

Information is a very valuable weapon, in can help in manipulation and it can result in changing behaviours and actions. Information warfare in the cyber environment can be considered the most developed form of warfare, through which the goal is achieved without human loss and without bloodshed. While many studies and researches have been conducted on the “weapons of attack” of this unconventional war, fake news and propaganda, since ancient times, less has been written about “weapons of defence” counteracting and combating their effects, and scientific studies and research are still far from finding the answer. In this article, we aim to analyse both the main weapon of attack: communication, as a method (technique, tactics) of transmitting fake news and propaganda and the main means of conducting information warfare, social media, by the force (speed) of the dissemination of communication. We will make this analysis starting from the origin and characteristics of interpersonal communication and social networks, which we will identify in disciplines such as psychology, sociology, social psychology and anthropology and show how each of these areas contributes to shaping the lives of users of virtual social networks. They can thus be used in information warfare. In our approach, we start from the hypothesis that communication aims to influence, the social network broadens the communication environment and promotes influence, and the Internet makes the communication process take place at the mass level, amplifies the speed of dissemination, which further accentuates influencing and recommending social media as a tool in the information war. We also aim to analyse this process of modelling (influencing) from socio-psychological perspectives to highlight how propaganda and fake news in social media work and how they could be countered using simple principles of communication and psycho-sociology.

KAJIAN TEORITIS: ANALISIS JARINGAN KOMUNIKASI INTERPERSONAL

Communication network analysis is one of method that can be used to identify the interaction of individuals in the group. This method not only focused on the individual and the social unit itself, but also the quality of the relationship between social units. This study aims to identify part of communication network concept such as interpersonal communication network. This article contains of a number of concepts related to interpersonal communication networks. Furthemore, this article try to give some descriptions about some researchs that concern about interpersonal comunication network. Therefore, this study aims to identify indicators that researchers often use in their research.Keyword: Communication network, interpersonal communication

Modeling and visualizing semantic and spatio-temporal evolution of topics in interpersonal communication on Twitter

ABSTRACT Interpersonal communication on online social networks has a significant impact on the society by not only diffusing information, but also forming social ties, norms, and behaviors. Knowing how the conversational discourse semantically and geographically vary over time can help uncover the changing dynamics of interpersonal ties and the digital traces of social events. This article introduces a framework for modeling and visualizing the semantic and spatio-temporal evolution of topics in a spatially embedded and time-stamped interpersonal communication network. The framework consists of (1) a topic modeling workflow for modeling topics and extracting the evolution of conversational discourse; (2) a geo-social network modeling and smoothing approach to projecting connection characteristics and semantics of communication onto geographic space and time; (3) a web-based geovisual analytics environment for exploring semantic and spatio-temporal evolution of topics in a spatially embedded and time-stamped interpersonal communication network. To demonstrate, geo-located and reciprocal user mention and reply tweets over the course of the 2016 primary and presidential elections in the United States from 1 August 2015 to 15 November 2016 were analyzed. The large portion of the topics extracted from mention tweets were related to daily life routines, human activities, and interests such as school, work, sports, dating, wearing, birthday celebration, music, food, and live-tweeting. Specific focus on the analysis of political conversations revealed that the content of conversational discourse was split between civil rights and election-related discussions of the political campaigns and candidates. These political topics exhibited major shifts in terms of content and the popularity in reaction to primaries, debates, and events throughout the study period. While civil rights discussions were more dominant and in higher intensity across the nation and throughout the whole time period, election-specific conversations resulted in temporally varying local hotspots that correlated with locations of primaries and events.

Bridging with Meaning: Organizational Vocabularies and Communication Networks in Organizations

We examine how communication networks within organizations are structured by organizational vocabularies -- sets of words used by organizational participants to describe, interpret and share their personal experiences within hierarchically structured domains of activity. The basic question we explore asks: how does the overlap in organizational vocabularies affect communication and information sharing relations across formal organizational boundaries? We reconstruct the bipartite network between organizational participants and the words they use to describe their subsidiary company within a multi-unit group, and examine how dyadic patterns of association between participants and words affect interpersonal communication networks. In an analysis of the multilevel network linking managers both directly, as well as through their affiliation to words, we find that organizational members adopt similar vocabularies to describe their organizational units. However, overlapping organizational vocabularies per se do not imply that organizational members will be more likely to establish relations of task-related communication. Typically, organizational members tend to restrict communication ties within rather than between formal boundaries. Yet, overlapping vocabularies make organizational members significantly more likely to communicate and share information across the formal boundaries of their units. We discuss the role that organizational vocabularies play in sustaining knowledge transfer across organizational boundaries, thus bridging cultural holes within organizations.

Jaringan Komunikasi Pelaku Inovasi Agribisnis Kolam Ikan Air Deras di Kecamatan Caringin Kabupaten Bogor

Running water fish culture is one of the techniques in freshwater fish cultivation. This activity forms an agribusiness system and interactions from the individuals involved. These interactions form a communication network. This study aimed to provide a description of running water fish culture innovation, analyze the interpersonal communication networks in running water fish culture agribusiness, factors that influence the interpersonal communication networks, and analyze the factors that influence business sustainability. This research which used the census method was conducted in Caringin Subdistrict Bogor Regency. Survey results show that the communication network formed was of scattered personal networks. The outdegree centrality and indegree centrality values obtained were categorized as medium respectively. The closeness centrality value is also in the medium category. Whereas the betweenness centrality value for running water fish agribusiness participants is known to be the highest. Those individuals with high betweenness centrality values possess the ability to organize communication in their networks.

La formación de los ciudadanos: el papel de la televisión y la comunicación humana en la socialización política

¿Cómo se están formando los futuros ciudadanos? ¿Cuáles son sus actitudes respecto a la participación ciudadana, el interés por los asuntos públicos? ¿Qué papel juegan agentes mediadores tales como los medios de comunicación y la familia? Este trabajo reporta los hallazgos de 1382 entrevistas por encuesta, realizadas entre marzo y mayo de 2006, en niños de sexto año de primaria de Monterrey, Saltillo y Cd. Victoria, México. Los datos se analizaron mediante modelos de análisis de trayectorias y de análisis múltiple de varianza. La evidencia apunta a la centralidad de la comunicación interpersonal para que los niños construyan su interés por los asuntos públicos y su disposición a la participación.

Toward Self Reliant Communities A Cultural Comparison of Disaster Response in Thailand, Guyana and the United States

This research provides a cross-cultural look at communication’s role in community disaster preparation and recovery. Cultures in three diverse sites were investigated: Individuals and community groups in Thailand’s Phuket and Phang-na provinces which experienced a tsunami in December 2004; in eastern Guyana where flooding devastated coastal areas in January 2005; and in New Orleans, Louisiana, where tens of thousands of people were displaced by the winds of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the waters that breached levees in fall 2005. Analyzing data from in-depth interviews and focus groups with individuals; members and leaders of faith-based and community organizations; and members and representatives of governmental and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), this study theorizes about the need for community members to strengthen interpersonal and community communication networks as preparation for and survival during disasters.

Influence Diffusion Model Based on Semantic Orientation and its Application in Opinion Leader Identification

As the pivotal intermediary guiding public opinion in the interpersonal communication network, opinion leader’s discovery and identification have great social significance. Aiming at the existing problem of IDM models and its related model, this paper proposed a Influence diffusion model based on semantic orientation, which combines semantic understanding to reduce the diffusion of mendacious influence, analyzing text orientation to quantify the emotional intention, using reply structure to calculate diffused influence, then identifying the network opinion leaders. Experiments indicated that this method can improve the accuracy of opinion leader identification effectively.

THE IMPORTANCE OF LOCAL CLUSTERS FOR THE DIFFUSION OF OPINIONS AND BELIEFS IN INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION NETWORKS

Opinions and beliefs are essential ingredients in the diffusion of innovation. We present a framework to model and simulate diffusion processes of opinions and beliefs in interpersonal communication networks. We introduce an algorithm to create stylized networks with attributes of real-world interpersonal communication networks. We also introduce a simple, but expandable model for simulating the dynamics of the diffusion processes of opinions and beliefs. We apply network multi-agent simulations to show the importance of local clusters of connected agents for keeping opinions and beliefs endemic in a social system. We also argue that due to the structure of interpersonal networks, these local clusters have the capability to propagate opinions and ideas into the entire system.

The remediation of the personal photograph and the politics of self-representation in digital storytelling

Over the past couple of decades, the cultural field formerly known as ‘domestic’, and later ‘personal’ photography has been remediated and transformed as part of the social web, with its convergence of personal expression, interpersonal communication and online social networks (most recently via platforms such as Flickr, Facebook and Twitter). Meanwhile, the digital storytelling movement (involving the workshop-based production of short autobiographical videos) from its beginnings in the mid-1990s relied heavily on the narrative power of the personal photograph, often sourced from family albums and later from online archives. This article addresses the new issues arising for the politics of self-representation and personal photography in the era of social media, focusing particularly on the consequences of online image-sharing. It discusses in detail the practices of selection, curation, manipulation and editing of personal photographic images among a group of activist-oriented queer digital storytellers who have in common a stated desire to share their personal stories in pursuit of social change and whose stories often aim to address both intimate and antagonistic publics.

Delineating Interpersonal Communication Networks: A Study of the Diffusion of an Intervention Among Female Entertainment Workers in Shanghai, China

Diffusion of innovation (DOI) is widely cited in the HIV behavior change literature; however there is a dearth of research on the application of DOI in interventions for sex workers. Following a randomized-controlled trial of HIV risk reduction among female entertainment workers (FEWs) in Shanghai, China, we used qualitative approaches to delineate potential interpersonal communication networks and contributing factors that promote diffusion of information in entertainment venues. Results showed that top-down communication networks from the venue owners to the FEWs were efficient for diffusion of information. Mammies/madams, who act as intermediaries between FEWs and clients form an essential part of FEWs' social networks but do not function as information disseminators due to a conflict of interest between safer sex and maximizing profits. Diffusion of information in large venues tended to rely more on aspects of the physical environment to create intimacy and on pressure from managers to stimulate communication. In small venues, communication and conversations occurred more spontaneously among FEWs. Information about safer sex appeared to be more easily disseminated when the message and the approach used to convey information could be tailored to people working at different levels in the venues. Results suggest that safer sex messages should be provided consistently following an intervention to further promote intervention diffusion, and health-related employer liability systems in entertainment venues should be established, in which employers are responsible for the health of their employees. Our study suggests that existing personal networks can be used to disseminate information in entertainment venues and one should be mindful about the context-specific interactions between FEWs and others in their social networks to better achieve diffusion of interventions.

HOW POLITICIANS AND BUREAUCRATS NETWORK: A COMPARISON ACROSS GOVERNMENTS

Effective public administration relies on the passage of information through interpersonal communication networks. While we have a vast research literature concerning formal structures and roles in organizations, including public agencies and government institutions, we know far less about the flow of information through semiformal, voluntary interactions. In this paper we use a large survey to explore the networking patterns of politicians and bureaucrats and to compare these with the more formal structural attributes of hierarchy and functional specialization. Social network analysis and standard quantitative measures are used to examine which actors are most central in advice and strategic information networks and how this varies across governments. The results suggest that the communication networks of politicians and bureaucrats differ substantially, with politicians being surprisingly peripheral in their patterns of interaction. Differences across governments are also observed with some municipalities being markedly more hierarchical, cross‐organizational, and externally focused in their networking behaviour.