Who is Really in Charge Here: An Exploration of the Formation and Empowerment of Opinion Leaders in a Reddit Gaming Community

In an attempt to shed light on the further sophistication of opinion leadership in online communities, this study examined the forces and structures that affect their formation in the League of Legends subreddit. By investigating what users thought about the various types of individuals with which t...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Carter, Clinton Chase
Other Authors: Clark, Meredith
Format: Others
Language:English
Published: University of North Texas 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1062848/
Description
Summary:In an attempt to shed light on the further sophistication of opinion leadership in online communities, this study examined the forces and structures that affect their formation in the League of Legends subreddit. By investigating what users thought about the various types of individuals with which the communicate, the researcher hoped to begin to understand and record how those forces work bother on this particular subreddit and in mass media beyond. Opinion leadership continues to be an integral force in deciding what information is consumed by a public and under what frames and agendas it is contextualized. If researchers can operationalize formal definitions for the influences and structures that occur online, they can better navigate the deep waters that are global communication on the internet.