Leading with hearts and minds: Emotion contagion in China’s online activism
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Leading with hearts and minds : Emotion contagion in China’s online activism. / Liu, Nian; Liu, Jun.
In: Social Movement Studies, Vol. 22, No. 5-6, 2023, p. 728–750.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Leading with hearts and minds
T2 - Emotion contagion in China’s online activism
AU - Liu, Nian
AU - Liu, Jun
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Who are the prominent actors leading the diffusion of emotional messages in China’s online activism? What roles do they play in this process in an emotion-discouraging context? In this exploratory study, we examine networked patterns of anger diffusion within the Red-Yellow-Blue kindergarten child abuse scandal on the Chinese social media Weibo. Using supervised machine learning for emotion labeling and a social network analysis approach, we identified three types of actors and profiled their distinctive roles in the process of anger contagion. Broadcasters (e.g., verified organi-zation accounts) act as both an information source and a legitimate source to elicit other users’ emotion through emotion-free informa-tion. Furthermore, emotion initiators like celebrities instigate and lead other users’ emotions, while emotion brokers like micro- celebrities build bridges between different subgroups to form a massive-scale network of emotion contagion. These actors are indispensable and complement each other for emotion contagion in China. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings on the understanding of emotion diffusion in online activism.
AB - Who are the prominent actors leading the diffusion of emotional messages in China’s online activism? What roles do they play in this process in an emotion-discouraging context? In this exploratory study, we examine networked patterns of anger diffusion within the Red-Yellow-Blue kindergarten child abuse scandal on the Chinese social media Weibo. Using supervised machine learning for emotion labeling and a social network analysis approach, we identified three types of actors and profiled their distinctive roles in the process of anger contagion. Broadcasters (e.g., verified organi-zation accounts) act as both an information source and a legitimate source to elicit other users’ emotion through emotion-free informa-tion. Furthermore, emotion initiators like celebrities instigate and lead other users’ emotions, while emotion brokers like micro- celebrities build bridges between different subgroups to form a massive-scale network of emotion contagion. These actors are indispensable and complement each other for emotion contagion in China. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings on the understanding of emotion diffusion in online activism.
U2 - 10.1080/14742837.2021.2011716
DO - 10.1080/14742837.2021.2011716
M3 - Journal article
VL - 22
SP - 728
EP - 750
JO - Social Movement Studies
JF - Social Movement Studies
SN - 1474-2837
IS - 5-6
ER -
ID: 276232024