- 期刊
線上政治討論中的「弄潮兒」：基於香港高登、連登論壇的研究
Trends Creators and Discoverers in Online Political Discussion: A Study Based on the Golden and LIHKG Forums in Hong Kong
摘要
本文從社會角色理論視角出發，認為線上網路討論社區中的使用者，可以根據其行為和網路結構特徵分成不同類型。本研究以2019年「修例風波」期間的香港高登論壇和連登論壇作為研究物件，以使用者發佈和發現流行帖數量為指標，將線上政治討論中的用戶劃分為四種不同的類型：熱門話題（潮流）的製造者、熱門話題（潮流）的發現者、超級使用者（同時是潮流製造者和潮流發現者）和普通用戶。前三類用戶扮演了線上政治討論中的「弄潮兒」角色，這些用戶在論壇中的佔比極低（高登約為1%，連登約0.1%），但卻分別貢獻了12.67%和31.84%的熱門帖，體現了網路使用者的影響力懸殊；相比於普通用戶，這些「弄潮兒」在論壇中的發帖和回帖行為更為頻繁，且存在著早期發現者反覆參加討論推動熱帖形成的現象；他們在論壇互動網路中的連線性、中心性和互惠性程度也較高，佔據著網路的重要位置；此外他們的話題互動呈現出明顯的「富人俱樂部現象」，且這一特徵在高登討論區更加明顯。通過比較兩個論壇使用者的互動網路還可以發現，高登論壇中存在著社團化現象，而連登則呈現出一定的去中心化特徵。高登和連登的資料比較顯示，作為具有近20年歷史的高登討論區已成為少數用戶的「地盤」，他們能夠通過製造和發現熱門話題來引導線上公共討論的潮流。連登討論區則呈現出用戶更加活躍、議題更聚焦、話語機會更加分散的輿論原生態。
並列摘要
Based on the theory of social roles, this paper claims that users in online forums can be divided into various categories according to the characteristics of their posting behaviors and the interaction network structures of their replies. Utilizing online discussions in the LIHKG and Golden forum during the 2019 Anti-extradition Bill movement in Hong Kong, this study uses the volumes of popular posts that users have created and discovered as indicators to group users into categories. Specifically, users within the two online forums are divided into four categories: (1) the popular topics/trends creators, (2) the popular topics/trends discoverers, (3) the super users (who are both popular topics creators and discoverers), and (4) other common users. Creators, discoverers, and super users are all found to play the role of current leader in online political discussion. Although their proportion was low (1% in Golden, 0.1% in LIHKG), they have contributed high percentages of popular topics in the forums (12.67% in Golden, 31.84% in LIHKG); this finding suggests that the influence of internet users is uneven. Compared with common users, current leaders posted and replied to topics more frequently, and the trends discoverers stirred up heated topics by repeated participation in discussion. Current leaders are also located in the central position of the forum interaction network, with higher connectivity, centrality, and reciprocity. Moreover, the interaction among current leaders presents a ＂Richmen's Club＂ phenomenon (which is more obvious in the Golden forum), meaning that current leaders are more likely to interact with each other rather than communicating with common users. By comparing the different interaction networks of the two forums, this study finds that there is a clustering pattern in the Golden forum, while the LIHKG forum shows decentralized features. The comparison between Golden and LIHKG forums also shows that the Golden forum has evolved into a territory for a minority of users, who can lead the trends of online public discussion through creating and discovering popular topics. In contrast, the LIHKG forum presents as a wild environment where users are more active, the topics are more focused, and the discursive opportunities among users are more dispersed.