Evolution of audience duplication networks among social networking sites: Exploring the influences of preferential attachment, audience size, and niche width

Abstract

This study examines the evolution of social networking sites (SNSs) from a networked audience duplication perspective. Guided by social network theory, the theory of double jeopardy, and niche theory, this study proposes an integrated framework to explain the evolution of SNS choices of the US audience between 2016 and 2019. Shared traffic data were retrieved from comScore’s Media Metrix Multi-Platform database. The empirical results of the separable temporal exponential random graph model (STERGM) confirm that preferential attachment, audience size, and niche width significantly drive the likelihood of tie formation and dissolution in the evolving audience duplication network. These effects hold true even when other endogenous structural features and exogenous nodal attributes are taken into account. Theoretical implications for the networked media landscape are discussed.

Ecological Influences on the Formation of the Hiring Network in the Communication Job Market, 2015 to 2019

“…First, this paper adds to the organizational ecology approach in communication (e.g., Xu, 2021; Xu et al, 2021). Communication scholars have employed ecological theories to explain changes in media forms (e.g., Dimmick, 2003; Scolari, 2013), communication networks (e.g., Lee & Monge, 2011; Margolin et al, 2015), and organizational practices (e.g., Weber, 2017; Yang, 2020), but few attempts have been made to draw insights from network inertia (Kim et al, 2006) and the identity-based view of niche processes (Hsu, 2006; Hsu & Hannan, 2005) to conceptualize interorganizational dynamics.…”

“…The current study adds to the two lines of literature by offering an ecological model of hiring decisions. While communication scholars have demonstrated the utility of the ecological perspective in explaining network evolution (e.g., Margolin et al, 2015; Monge & Contractor, 2003; Xu, 2021), little work has been conducted to investigate ecological constraints on networked hiring patterns. This paper also contributes to the dialogue between ecological and network perspectives on organizational behavior by shedding light on the ecological foundations of network emergence.…”

A Systems Approach to Studying Online Communities

“…A systems perspective can help us to recognize that this fuzziness is not a methodological hurdle to be overcome but a key lens for understanding the dynamics of online communities. For example, we can gain insight by looking at which communities people co-contribute to and how that changes over time (Xu, 2021;Zhu et al, 2014). These fuzzy boundaries mean that the environment has an outsized role; understanding why one online community succeeds in reaching its goals while another does not usually has much more to do with how and where the organization is embedded in the larger network (i.e., system) of online communities.…”

“…The key idea of organizational ecology is that ecological relationships like competition and mutualism occur between organizations. For example, researchers have studied how topical competition influences membership (TeBlunthuis et al, 2017;Zhu et al, 2014) and how relationships between generalist and specialist social networking sites change over time (Xu, 2021).…”

Channels Adopted for Information Seeking during COVID-19: Comparing Social Media with News Media and Interpersonal Communication in Taiwan

“…This theory assumes that a medium’s fit with its environment plays a more critical part than its internal management for this medium’s survival. By assessing the resource utilization patterns of different media, niche theory explains why these media are able to coexist in an environment of limited resources [ 5 , 6 , 7 ]. The obtained gratifications measure consumers’ degrees of satisfaction with using a particular medium, which is regarded as the most important resource in the media industry because prior studies have demonstrated that consumer satisfaction is the reason that individuals will continue using a given medium [ 8 , 9 ].…”