Bartal Alon, Jagodnik Kathleen M
The School of Business Administration, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel.
Entropy (Basel). 2021 Nov 19;23(11):1542. doi: 10.3390/e23111542.
Understanding the complex process of information spread in online social networks (OSNs) enables the efficient maximization/minimization of the spread of useful/harmful information. Users assume various roles based on their behaviors while engaging with information in these OSNs. Recent reviews on information spread in OSNs have focused on algorithms and challenges for modeling the local node-to-node cascading paths of viral information. However, they neglected to analyze non-viral information with low reach size that can also spread globally beyond OSN edges (links) via non-neighbors through, for example, pushed information via content recommendation algorithms. Previous reviews have also not fully considered user roles in the spread of information. To address these gaps, we: (i) provide a comprehensive survey of the latest studies on role-aware information spread in OSNs, also addressing the different temporal spreading patterns of viral and non-viral information; (ii) survey modeling approaches that consider structural, non-structural, and hybrid features, and provide a taxonomy of these approaches; (iii) review software platforms for the analysis and visualization of role-aware information spread in OSNs; and (iv) describe how information spread models enable useful applications in OSNs such as detecting influential users. We conclude by highlighting future research directions for studying information spread in OSNs, accounting for dynamic user roles.
理解在线社交网络（OSN）中信息传播的复杂过程，有助于有效实现有用/有害信息传播的最大化/最小化。用户在这些OSN中与信息互动时，会根据自身行为扮演各种角色。最近关于OSN中信息传播的综述主要集中在对病毒式信息的局部节点到节点级联路径进行建模的算法和挑战上。然而，他们忽略了对传播范围较小的非病毒式信息的分析，这类信息也可以通过非邻居，例如通过内容推荐算法推送的信息，在全球范围内传播到OSN边缘（链接）之外。之前的综述也没有充分考虑用户在信息传播中的角色。为了填补这些空白，我们：（i）对OSN中角色感知信息传播的最新研究进行全面综述，同时探讨病毒式和非病毒式信息不同的时间传播模式；（ii）调查考虑结构、非结构和混合特征的建模方法，并对这些方法进行分类；（iii）回顾用于分析和可视化OSN中角色感知信息传播的软件平台；（iv）描述信息传播模型如何在OSN中实现有用的应用，如检测有影响力的用户。我们通过强调未来研究方向来总结全文，这些研究方向将考虑动态用户角色，以研究OSN中的信息传播。
