Analysis of Structural Features of Public Opinion Dissemination Network for Emergency Events Based on SNATake Jiangsu Xiangshui "3•21"explosion accident as an example

Purpose/Significance Grasping the internal structural features of the public opinion dissemination network for emergency events can provide optimized countermeasures for the healthy development of internet public opinion. Design/Methodology The social network analysis (SNA) is applied to make empirical research on the “3•21 Explosive Accident” in Xiangshui, Jiangsu Province, and the UCINET software is adopted to generate network topology diagram. This paper conducts measurement analysis of the network structure features from seven utility measuring indexes under the three dimensions of overall network structure, centrality and position role. Findings/Conclusions The results show that the public opinion dissemination network for emergency events has high connectivity and heterogeneity; the structural features of the network may affect the speed and effectiveness of public opinion information dissemination; the user’s information dissemination ability has the Matthew effect; the user characteristics may affect its network status. Finally, this paper puts forward targeted suggestions based on the analysis of the internal structural features of the network.