Risk assessment and governance path of social media rumors based on GRA and FsQCA

ABSTRACTThe research on the risk assessment and governance path of social media rumors is of great significance to build a harmonious network environment. This study constructs a risk assessment indicator system of social media rumors based on information ecology theory and uses entropy weight method (EWM) to calculate the weight of risk indicators. Taking data set of Sina Weibo cases as an example, this study uses grey relational analysis (GRA) to construct a risk grading model of social media rumors. Based on the hierarchical data set, this study uses fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to further explore the formation path of high-risk rumors. Five configuration paths are obtained and governance methods of social media rumors for the government and social media platforms are proposed.KEYWORDS: Social media rumorsrisk grading modelgovernance pathgrey relational analysis (GRA)fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA)JEL CLASSIFICATION: D01D83P16 Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).