The structure of public expression and issue rise: participation heterogeneity, concentration, and timing in Internet forums

Abstract

The rise of public issues in Internet forums plays an important role in the formation of public opinion. This study investigates the structure of public expressions in the Internet forums, and aims to detect the structural characteristics of the successful rise of public issues. This study analyzed 110 threads with more than 3,000 posts that were collected from a famous Chinese Internet forum. The results suggest participation heterogeneity, concentration, and intensive replies at the early stage are associated with a higher probability of successful thread building. The model can explain 68.5% variance of the number of posts in the thread. The results imply that the structure of public expression is crucial for the rise of public issues.