The Influence of Social Relationships in Social Media on the Expression of Public Opinion: Based on the Study of Balance Theory#br#

  • Xu Xinran ,
  • Ji Xuemei ,
  • Li Changrong
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  • (Institute of Scientific&Technical Information, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo, 255049)

Online published: 2019-11-07

Abstract

This paper discusses five kinds of balanced behaviors that users may adopt when expressing their opinions under the influence of different social relationships, and puts forward hypotheses and the model of influencing factors of balanced behavior. Through the questionnaire survey, an empirical study is carried out by this paper on the balance behaviors and its influencing factors. The results shows that social relationships have impacts on the expression of public opinions on emergencies; the weaker the users’judgment ability is, the more likely they are to refer to their friends’attitudes towards the event and even they tend to change their attitudes to cater to friends’; users with high group status tend to adopt several balanced behaviors to achieve the balance of social relationships when expressing public opinion in emergencies; users who know more about event information are more likely to hold their ground, and tends to persuade friends when they disagree with the opinions of friends, and tends to have a positive attitude towards opponents when they had the same attitudes with opponents. This study enriches the application of the balance theory and puts forward new ideas for the study of social media user behavior.

Cite this article

Xu Xinran , Ji Xuemei , Li Changrong . The Influence of Social Relationships in Social Media on the Expression of Public Opinion: Based on the Study of Balance Theory#br#[J]. Information and Documentation Services, 2019 , 40(6) : 51 -62 . DOI: 10.12154/j.qbzlgz.2019.06.008

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