Browsing by Subject "Forum"

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Meinungsführer in Online-Diskussionsforen
(2016) Scheiko, Ljewin; Schenk, Michael
The study deals with opinion leaders in internet forums. Questions and hypotheses of classical opinion leader studies are transferred and adapted to the specific characteristics of the communication process in internet forums. Due to the width of the field of research, the study is divided into three research areas, each with a specific objective. In the first research area general findings on users of internet forums are obtained. In the second research area opinion leaders are profiled in detail and the relevance of shared information in internet forums is evaluated as well as the degree of influence of opinion leaders on other users is measured. In the third research area, the network structure of internet forums is analyzed and the network positions of opinion leaders are identified. To meet the different objectives optimally, a complex study design, consisting of an Internet-representative online survey and a triangulation of online survey and network analysis, is used.