Abstract
Analyzing the contents of online social networks is
an effective process for monitoring and understanding peoples’
behaviors. Since the nature of conversation and information
propagation is similar to traditional conversation and learning,
one of the popular socio-cognitive methods, social cognitive
theory was applied to online social networks to. Two major news
topics about colon cancer were chosen to monitor traffic of
Twitter messages. The activity of “leaders” on the issue (i.e., news
companies or people will prior Twitter activity on topics related
to colon cancer) was monitored. In addition, the activity of
“followers”, people who never discussed the topics before, but
replied to the discussions was also monitored. Topics that
produce tangible benefits such as positive outcomes from
appropriate preventive actions received dramatically more
attention and online social media traffic. Such characteristics can
be explained with social cognitive theory and thus present
opportunities for effective health campaigns.
