Social Networking Flashcards
Social Networking
a method of schematizing dynamics between groups in order to study the patterns of connections between individual components
Network
a collection of points joined together by pairs of lines
Vertex/Nodes
a member of the network
Lines/Edges
the connections
e.g. friendships, professional relationships, romantic relationships
Example of networks
-the internet
-neural systems
-collection of computers linked together by data connections
Properties of Networks
- Visualization
-allows for recognition of patterns
-not viable with very large data sets - Quantifiable
-e.g. how many important vertices or edges there are in a network
What methods are used to construct networks?
-Interviews and Questionnaires
-Direct Observations
-Archival/third party records (e.g. looking at FB users’ connections)
Sociometric network
looking at the full connections of people in a given space
-e.g. network of communication majors at ucla
Ego-centric network
looking at an individual person or institution’s networks to see how information flows, who is central, and who is peripheral
Direct Observations Limitations
-labor intensive
-can only work with small groups
Archival/third party pros
allows for analyzing massive databases
Relational Perspective
-Actors and actions are interdependent
-Ties between actors are channels for the flow of something: resources, information, effects
-Network ties both enable and constrain actions
Complete Example
-Online social influence network- How does a particular term (“chugey”) spread
Vertices: social media users
Edges: follower relationships, retweets, likes, comments
State explicitly what the edge is - an objective measurable way of quantifying the relationship between the vertices
Insight: identify opinion leaders and measuring their influence or trending topics
