Social media and autism support: Investigation on autism support groups on Facebook

Zhao, Yuehua; Zhang, Jin; Wang, Yanyan

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/96739 Copy

Description

Title

Social media and autism support: Investigation on autism support groups on Facebook

Author(s)

• Zhao, Yuehua
• Zhang, Jin
• Wang, Yanyan

Issue Date

2017

Keyword(s)

• Autism support
• Social media
• Social network analysis
• Sentiment analysis
• Support group

Abstract

Given the fast permeation of social media into the health domain, this study centers on the investigation of how users interact and communicate within the autism support groups on Facebook. Based on the investigation on one of the largest autism-related group, we found that group members actively involved in the group interactions, and they preferred commenting more than liking and tagging. The group interactions such as making comments and giving “like” to other members’ group posts generated different types of social networks within the group based on group members’ activities. Influential actors emerged from the interaction networks generated from the social network analysis. The findings identified that the group administrator occupied the genuine dominator position from different perspectives. In addition, sentiment analysis discovered that group members expressed more positive emotions than negative emotions through the group communications.

Publisher

iSchools

Series/Report Name or Number

iConference 2017 Proceedings

Type of Resource

text

Language

en

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/96739

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2017 Yuehua Zhao, Jin Zhang, and Yanyan Wang

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