Interactive Evolution of Multidimensional Information in Social Media for Public Emergency: A Perspective from Optics Scattering

Most of the current research on the information analysis of social media (SM) for public emergency focused on a single dimension such as emotion while neglecting the interaction between multidimensional information. Therefore, in this study, an information dispersing–superimposing model is proposed to explain the implicit regularity of the impact within a symbol, sentiment, and context information and their dependent evolution on the SM. Information hue, saturation, and flux (HSF) are defined to measure the interaction process. An online event was selected to verify the concept and hypothesis of this study. The results proved that the interaction among multidimensional information did exist on the SM for a public emergency. The turning points of information dispersing–superimposing often emerged when the number of online users involved had significant changes, and sentiment and context information were showed to have a strong interaction relationship and tended to be spread at the same time. It was also manifested that the dominant information component was varied at each stage of the emergency. This paper is one of the first to study the interaction of multidimensional information on the SM derived from optics scattering. The findings of the study will try to provide a theoretical explanation for why certain information components may be enhanced during the online dissemination and suggest practical support for the information predictions and interface design for SM.