• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.56
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• pp.194-218
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• 2011

Focusing on the individuals' structural positions and roles in the internet discussion network, this research explores whether and how the opinion leaders' network characteristics are associated with the message quality and interpersonal influence in terms of attention-drawing and response-generation, which prior studies often failed to fully explicate. Findings suggest that discussion participants with high message quality occupy more central positions in the discussion network, thus enjoy more attention and responses of other following participants. However, opinion leader's network centralities, which tap the structural positions and unique roles in the online discussion network, systematically mediate the effect of the message quality on interpersonal influence. Moreover, significant interaction between opinion perception and network centrality was found only on the majority opinion group, rendering the entire discussion structure toward more enclaved deliberation and group polarization. Taken together, the results imply that the influence of the online opinion leader can only be substantiated with participant's central positions in the discussion network, which has been ignored by the prior opinion leadership research.