A SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS: EVALUATING ROLES OF OPINION LEADERS IN SHAPING PUBLIC OPINION ON COVID-19 NEWS

Abstract

The essence of human communication is to convey meaning into understanding because communication without understanding does not result in desired behavioural change. Hence, this paper examined a social network analysis: evaluating the roles of opinion leaders in shaping public opinion on covid-19 news. 62,119 online posts from 11 social networks were examined to analyze the novel coronavirus disease information. These platforms include Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, WhatApp, Tiktok, Telegram, Snapchat, and Google Hangouts. Strong influences, engagements, and hot values were the best predictors of opinion-leader classification across 11 Internet forums. This study abreast the Two-Step Flow theory, the characteristics of opinion leaders, and how they interpret media messages, all of which have much influence. The findings called into question traditional news sources because opinion leaders drew widespread attention to the health threat issues during the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak. This study contributes to a better understanding of social network types, follower engagement, and maximizing the impact of opinion leaders in social networks. It concluded that during the COVID-19 outbreak, the roles of opinion leaders were to interpret government policies regarding the pandemic, explain non-pharmaceutical measures to stop the spread of COVID-19, and encourage the public to get the COVID-19 vaccine