Visualized Analysis of the Communication Effects of the Sina Weibo/Micro-blog of Chinese National Geography

In China, the emergence of various social media have dramatically changed the situation of media ecology and rapidly infiltrated into all kinds of traditional media. Many traditional scientific magazines or journals also regard micro-blog as a new platform to diffuse scientific information. Taking the Sina Weibo/micro-blog account of Chinese National Geography (CNG) as a case study, this research aimed to figure out the development path of popular science magazines within the era of media convergence. Content analysis was conducted based on the 6,882 posts/articles and related data collected from 22 September 2009 to 21 September 2013. Visualized software PKUVIS was used to show the transmission path, levels and effects, based on those hot CNG micro-blog posts being highly forwarded or commented. The findings showed that the patterns of CNG micro-blog posts were related to content rather than time. The CNG micro-blog posts showed declined rate of originality, stable ratio of images, and increased proportion of links. Although limited within 140 words, the content of CNG microblog posts still maintained its diversity and professionalism. According to the visualized analyses, when the micro-blog posts focused on scientific information, long communication chains appeared and wide communication range was formed as it being forwarded by some famous or popular verified followers (V-fans). These findings may provide insights for future development of science magazines’ micro-blog.