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Article
Evolution of the Plandemic Communication Network Among Serial Participants on Twitter
New Media & Society
  • Yu Xu, Northwestern University
  • Yao Sun
  • Loni Hagen, University of South Florida
  • Mihir Patel
  • Mary Falling, University of South Florida
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2021
Keywords
  • Communication networks,
  • COVID-19,
  • misinformation,
  • network analysis,
  • online discussion,
  • Plandemic,
  • RSiena
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448211050928
Abstract

The coronavirus pandemic has been accompanied by the spread of misinformation on social media. The Plandemic conspiracy theory holds that the pandemic outbreak was planned to create a new social order. This study examines the evolution of this popular conspiracy theory from a dynamic network perspective. Guided by the analytical framework of network evolution, the current study explores drivers of tie changes in the Plandemic communication network among serial participants over a 4-month period. Results show that tie changes are explained by degree-based and closure-based structural features (i.e. tendencies toward transitive closure and shared popularity and tendencies against in-degree activity and transitive reciprocated triplet) and nodal attributes (i.e. bot probability and political preference). However, a participant’s level of anger expression does not predict the evolution of the observed network.

Citation / Publisher Attribution

New Media & Society, p. 1-20

Citation Information
Yu Xu, Yao Sun, Loni Hagen, Mihir Patel, et al.. "Evolution of the Plandemic Communication Network Among Serial Participants on Twitter" New Media & Society (2021) p. 1 - 20
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/loni-hagen/37/