Information propagation and collective consensus in blogosphere: a game-theoretical approach

Abstract

In this paper, we study the information propagation in an empirical blogging network by game-theoretical approach. The blogging network has small-world property and is scale-free. Individuals in the blogosphere coordinate their decisions according to their idiosyncratic preferences and the choices of their neighbors. We find that corresponding to different initial conditions and weights, the equilibrium frequency of discussions has a transition from high to low as a result of the common interest in the topics specified by payoff matrices. Furthermore, under recommendation, namely, individuals in blogging networks refer to additional bloggers' resources besides their nearest neighbors preferentially according to the popularity of the blogs, the whole blogging network ultrafastly evolves into consensus state (absorbing state). Our results reflect the dynamic pattern of information propagation in blogging networks.