A Study on the Consequences of Kongping Behaviour in the Framework of the Spiral of Silence and the Weighted and Calculated Needs for New Media -- Taking Weibo Kongping as an Example

Abstract

Under the influence of the "artificial intelligence +" trend, a large number of highly "automated" and "anthropomorphic" robotic social water army have emerged in new media platforms to participate in kongping (which describes mediums and bloggers use artificial water army or robotic water army to control reviews for making the comment content or public opinion trend meet their own expectations.). From the traditional artificial water army to "fake social media accounts" to robotic social water army. On the one hand, kongping is becoming more and more low-cost, accurate and highly intelligent. But on the other hand, the large-scale robotic social water army also have an impact on users' media adoption and usage habits. This paper examines the consequences of kongping based on the spiral of silence theory and the weighted and calculated needs for new media. The results of the study show that the more kongping behavior there is on Weibo, the more silence it provokes. And kongping behaviour reduces the frequency of users' use of Weibo.