Information Mediating in Social Network Sites : A Simulation Study

Sangkyu Rho, Taekyung Kim, Jinsoo Park

Abstract


Information sharing behavior in the Internet has raised much interest. Recently, social network sites provide a new information sharing channel for the users who want to connect with others based on common social background or tastes. Especially, we focus that a social network site becomes one of major routes for information sharing about socially influential issues. Therefore, studying how information is diffused via a social network site may give theoretically, practically significant implication. Based on the assertion, we investigated user's behavior to mediate other user's information messages. We define information mediating behavior as concurrent actions of filtering and distributing behavior of the digital content that is originated from one of the connected users. In this study, we intended to understand the effects of information mediating behavior, and tried to understand characteristics of re-mediating of previously mediated information. Using an agent-based simulation model, we found that information mediating behavior increased the extent of information diffusion significantly. In addition, even a small degree of mediating probability could boost up the level of information diffusion in the case of a re-mediating condition. We believe that those findings provide remarkable insight of research and business application on both of information sharing and diffusion in a social network site.

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