Does Social Media Users’ Interaction Influence the Formation of Echo Chambers? Social Network Analysis Based on Vaccine Video Comments on YouTube

Mingfei Sun, Xiaoyue Ma () and Yudi Huo
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Mingfei Sun: School of Journalism and New Media, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
Xiaoyue Ma: School of Journalism and New Media, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
Yudi Huo: School of Journalism and New Media, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 23, 1-14

Abstract: The characteristics and influence of the echo chamber effect (TECE) of health misinformation diffusion on social media have been investigated by researchers, but the formation mechanism of TECE needs to be explored specifically and deeply. This research focuses on the influence of users’ imitation, intergroup interaction, and reciprocity behavior on TECE based on the social contagion mechanism. A user comment–reply social network was constructed using the comments of a COVID-19 vaccine video on YouTube. The semantic similarity and Exponential Random Graph Model (ERGM) were used to calculate TECE and the effect of three interaction mechanisms on the echo chamber. The results show that there is a weak echo chamber effect (ECE) in the spread of misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine. The imitation and intergroup interaction behavior are positively related to TECE. Reciprocity has no significant influence on TECE.

Keywords: health misinformation; echo chamber; user interaction; ERGM; COVID-19 vaccine (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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