Research on the Dissemination Process of Hot Words — Focus on the Connection between Netizens’ Emotions and the Search Volume of Hot Words

The era of the popularization of the Internet has heralded an explosion of information. Various hot words appear frequently online, arousing public attention. The purpose of this study is to clarify the connection between netizens’ emotions and the search volume of hot words to explore their dissemination process. We randomly selected 10 hot words that were released by famous journals and events in China, and examined the dynamics of these words from January 1 to April 30, 2021. We obtained the search volume data of hot words from the data-sharing platform “Baidu Index,” and classified the search trend types into “segmented,” “steady,” and “bursty.” We collected the text information submitted by netizens related to these 10 words from the online social platform “Weibo” for emotion analysis, and compared the proportion of emotions with the search volume of hot words to analyze the correlation. This study concludes that there is a connection between netizens’ emotions and the search volume of hot words, and it is easier to detect prominent emotions in search trends with obvious fluctuations. This result helps us grasp the dissemination process of hot words, and simultaneously understand public opinion, which will help stabilize social development.