Networking Interest and Networked Structure

This study examines the relationship between individuals’ networking interests and a group’s networked structure. The data set includes 25,651 members and 12,638 mentions from Twitter-mediated communities in South Korea. Using social network and web impact analyses, we investigated the micro- and macro linkage between individuals’ interests and groups’ structure, the meso-level analysis of individual-to-individual relationships, and the hyperlinked content shared in each community. Findings suggest that different interests of individuals in joining online communities were associated with variations in those communities’ network structures: Communities with sociopolitical goals had a denser network structure and communities for interpersonal interests had a more reciprocated network. Communities for information access exhibited greater dependence on a single member, contrary to the communities for information sharing. Types of content shared in the communities also varied by interests. These findings led us to compose a network topology with visual representation, based on sociopolitical, informational, and interpersonal interests.