Abstract:
Social Network Analysis (SNA) is a research method which focuses on patterns of
relations among people and entities such as organizations and states. They are
worthwhile for examining an individual’s or organization’s social structure and
interdependencies (or work patterns). Online SNA is a practical method that can
reliably monitor the interactions in an online community. In this study, SNA of a video
comment network series of YouTube videos related to a significant and viral incident
has been performed. This study analysed the YouTube videos on the death of George
Floyd and the uplift of Black Lives Matter. By analysing those video comment
networks, it was able to probe a plethora of insights about the netizens, their behaviour
and their influence over society. This endeavour will enlighten the path for an arena
for policymakers on prevention and countermeasures on manipulations of vox populi.
The key players and the discussions they made to continue the issue into a social
media viral had been identified by means of social network theory concepts. Several
significant relationships were discovered where a specific commenter continually
influenced the discussion into the motives which they preferred. The detection of hubs
(nodes to point to many other nodes) and key authorities (nodes that are meant to be
from many other nodes) will establish the foundation for identifying the motives of
comment behaviours. While this analysis looked at relationship weight and node
degree, there is still room for further analysis of the social network by analysing
centrality measures such as betweenness, closeness, and PageRank.
