人肉搜索事件由網路興起，群眾自主發起的尋人任務。強大的輿論壓力，使網路議題演變為公眾關注的社會案件。為探究人肉搜索形成的條件與運作機制，本研究設定三項核心研究命題：1. 何謂網路人肉搜索；2. 在人肉搜索事件的發展過程中, 人們的資訊需求如何產生與演變；3. 人們如何協力，以滿足人肉搜索事件發展過程中的資訊需求。

本研究以人肉搜索事件為研究個案，先行了解網路集體行動的過程與議題變化，接續觀察網路社群內部活動，如多重對話角色分工與資源運用，帶入官方媒體/ 警政單位發布訊息、其他網路社群討論線索，並自主展開後續資訊搜尋行動，以 滿足社群內部的資訊需求，協力完成網路尋人任務，直到完成集體目標為止。

過去人肉搜索多著重法規、資訊倫理等取徑，並無深入觀察人肉搜索活動。而本研究透過人肉搜索觀察網路集體行動，可為社會學門增進了解新型集體行動；並提供傳播學門，觀察人們如何透過傳播工具協同合作，以網路工具搜尋社會資訊(social information)；更可為實務貢獻－如記者、警政等高度尋人需求的單位，了解群眾資源如何可用。

本研究以中指蕭事件為個案，研究發現此個案為兩週短期網路事件，人肉搜索行動為懲處需求帶動的資訊行為，並且網路群體活動方式為先行動後組織，主要以三種尋人線索類別－特徵、社會網絡、姓名標籤(ID)，找尋事實資訊，在此蒐尋過程中，網路物質工具提供集體尋人的能動性，主要提高線索的資訊豐富程度，例如影音圖檔、超鍊結、電子資料庫等。而社會互動層面，社群成員各自歸位，針對自我擅長的尋人路線，貢獻資源，協同合作為資源、目標、資訊締結關係，可謂角色分工活絡資源，完成尋人任務。

Human flesh search events emerged from the internet as crowd-initiated person-finding missions. Intense public opinion pressure often transforms online issues into social cases that attract broad public attention. To examine the conditions under which human flesh search emerges and its operational mechanisms, this study proposes three core research questions: (1) What constitutes online human flesh search; (2) how information needs arise and evolve during the development of human flesh search events; and (3) how participants collaborate to fulfill these information needs throughout the progression of such events.

Taking human flesh search events as case studies, this research first seeks to understand the processes of online collective action and the evolution of issues over time. It then examines internal activities within online communities, including the division of labor among multiple conversational roles and the use of resources. The analysis further incorporates information released by official media and law enforcement agencies, as well as clues discussed in other online communities. Participants subsequently initiate autonomous information-search actions to meet internal information needs, collaboratively carrying out online person-finding tasks until collective goals are achieved.

Previous studies on human flesh search have largely focused on legal regulation and information ethics, with limited in-depth observation of the actual practices involved. By examining online collective action through human flesh search events, this study contributes to sociology by advancing understanding of emerging forms of collective action. It also contributes to communication studies by illustrating how individuals coordinate through communication technologies to collaboratively search for social information. Furthermore, this research offers practical implications for professions with high person-finding demands—such as journalism and law enforcement—by demonstrating how crowd-based resources may be mobilized and utilized.

Using the “Middle Finger Xiao” incident as a case study, this research finds that the event constituted a short-term online episode lasting approximately two weeks. The human flesh search activities were driven by punitive motivations and manifested as information-seeking behaviors. The mode of collective action followed a pattern of action preceding organization. Three primary categories of person-finding clues were identified: personal characteristics, social networks, and name-based identifiers (IDs), all of which were used to locate information. During this process, digital material tools provided collective agency for person-finding by enhancing the richness of information clues, such as audiovisual files, hyperlinks, and electronic databases. At the level of social interaction, community members assumed differentiated roles aligned with their individual strengths in specific person-finding pathways, contributing resources and collaborating to form linkages among resources, objectives, and information. Through this dynamic division of labor, resources were effectively mobilized and the person-finding mission was ultimately accomplished.

王凌云、劉銳(2009)。〈”人肉搜索”的傳播流程及存在的問題〉。《今傳媒》，73-74。
方正璽、林芳羽（2010）。網路上的暴力正義－人肉搜尋的現象與探討。資訊與管理科學，3(2)，23-35。https://doi.org/10.30136/ZXYGLKX.201012.0002
冯晓芳 (2009)。中国狭义“人肉搜索”之研究（硕士论文）。厦门大学。
邱林川（2008）。資訊「社會」：理論、現實、模式與反思（Information “Society”: Theories, Reality, Models and Reflection）。《傳播與社會學刊》，6，71–99。
金純峰、涂花（2009）。〈人肉搜索的傳播學意義及其困惑〉。《湖北廣播電視大學學報》，29〈1〉，83-84。
林奇秀（2011）。人肉搜索初探。圖書與資訊學刊，(79)，31-47。https://doi.org/10.6575/JoLIS.2011.79.03
胥文政、齐万敏（2009）。〈青少年”網絡人肉搜索”現象研究〉。《理論界》，178-179。
侯政男、蔡宗哲(2011)。嚴格網路控制下的另類權力與監督：中國大陸網站的人肉搜索行為初探。中華傳播學會：新竹。
徐志偉（2008）。《新聞記者尋人行為研究：以小人物消息來源採訪為例》。國立政治大學新聞研究所碩士論文。
陳順孝 (2008 年 12 月 ８ 日)。〈野草莓運動的傳播分析（草稿）〉，《阿孝札記》。上網日期：2011 年 10 月 25 日，取自http://www.ashaw.org/2008/12/post.html
黃哲斌（2009）。〈公民新聞的網路實踐─以樂生療養院事件為例〉，國立政治大學新聞研究所碩士論文。
曾上嘉（2011）。〈災難資訊的正當性爭奪-莫拉克風災資訊會整平台之行動探討〉，國立政治大學社會學研究所碩士論文。
楊國斌（2009）。〈悲情與戲謔：網絡事件中的情感動員〉，《傳播與社會學刊》，9: 39-66。
盧沛樺(2010)。網路動員與青年公民參與：以 PTT鄉民救災團為例。中華傳播學會：嘉義。
Brown, R. (2000). Group processes: Dynamics within and between groups (2nd ed.).
Oxford: Blackwell.
Beissinger, Mark R. (2002). Nationalist Mobilization and the Collapse of the Soviet State. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Bimber, B. (2003). Information and American democracy: Technology in the evolution of political power. Cambridge University Press.
Burt, R. S. (2005). Brokerage and closure: An introduction to social capital. New York: Oxford University Press.
Bimber, B., Flanagin, A. J., & Stohl, C.. (2005). Reconceptualizing collective action in the contemporary media environment. Communication Theory, 15(4):365-388.
Bajpai, K., & Anuj Jaiswal (2011). A Framework for analyzing collective action events on Twitter, Paper presented in the Proceedings of the 8th International ISCRAM Conference, Lisbon, Portugal.
Correll, S. (1995). The ethnography of an electronic bar: The lesbian café. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 24, 270-298.
Castells, M. (1996). The rise of the network society. Blackwell.
Cheong, P. H., & Gong, J. (2009). Cyber vigilantism, transmedia collective intelligence, and civic participation. Chinese Journal of Communication, 2(4), 471–487.
Christofides, E., Muise, A., & Desmarais, S. (2009). Information disclosure and control on Facebook: Are they two sides of the same coin or two different processes? CyberPsychology & Behavior, 12(5), 341-345. https://doi.org/10.1089/cpb.2008.0226
Dynes, R. R. (1970). Organized behavior in disaster. Heath Lexington.
Dervin, B. (1983). An overview of sense-making research: Concepts, methods, and results to date.
Drabek, T. E. (1986). Human system responses to disaster: An inventory of sociological findings. Springer.
Dourish, P. (2004). What we talk about when we talk about context. Journal of Personal & Ubiquitous Computing, 8(1), 19-30.
Earl, J., & Kimport, K. (2011). Digitally enabled social change: Activism in the Internet age. MIT Press.
Granovetter, M. (1973). The strength of weak ties. American Journal of. Sociology, 78(6), 1360-1380.
Gross, T. (1998). Supporting collaboration and cooperation in digital information environments. Workshop on Collaboration and Cooperative Information Seeking in Digital environments, Seatle, WA. CSCW-98.
Gibson, C. B., & Randel, A. E., & Earley, P. C. (2000). Understanding group-efficacy: An empirical test of multiple assessment methods. Group & Organization Management, 25: 67–97.
Golovchinsky, G., Pickens, J., and Back, M.(2008). A taxonomy of collaboration in online information seeking. In JCDL Workshop on Collaborative Information Retrieval.
Hughes, A. & Palen, L. (2009). Twitter Adoption and Use in Mass Convergence and Emergency Events. In the Proceedings of the 6th International ISCRAM Conference, (Gothenburg, Sweden, May 2009). PDF available.
Knowles, M., & Knowles, H. (1959). Introduction to group dynamics. New York: Associated Press.
Kozinets, R. V. (1997). I want to believe: A netnography of the x-philes’ subculture of consumption. In M. Brucks, & D. MacInnis (Eds.), Advances in consumer research, vol. 24. (pp.470-475). Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research.
Marvin, L. E. (1995). Spoof, spam, lurk and lag: The aesthetics of text-based virtual realities. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1(2).
McCaughey, M. & Ayers, M. D. (2003). Cyberactivism: Online activism in theory and practice. New York:Routledge.
Olzak, Susan.(1989). “Analysis of Events in Studies of Collective Action.” Annual Review of Sociology 15:119–41.
Postmes, T., & Brunsting, S. (2002). Collective action in the age of the Internet: Mass communication and online mobilization. Social Science Computer Review, 20(3), 290–301.
Palen, L., Vieweg, S., Sutton, J., Liu, S., & Hughes, A. (2007). Crisis Informatics: Studying Crisis in a Networked World. In the Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on E-Social Science, Ann Arbor, MI, Oct 7-9, 2007. http://ess.si.umich.edu/papers/paper172.pdf PDF available.
Quarantelli, E. L. (1994). Emergent behaviors and groups in the crisis time period. In R. R. Dynes & K. J. Tierney (Eds.), Disasters, collective behavior, and social organization (pp. 47–68). University of Delaware Press.
Qu, Y., Wu, P. F., & Wang, X. (2009). Online Community Response to Major Disaster: A Study of Tianya Forum in the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake. Paper presented at the 42nd Hawaii International Conference on Information System Sciences, (Hawaii, USA). PDF available.
Ramirez, A., Walther, J. B., Burgoon, J. K., & Sunnafrank, M. (2002).
Information-seeking strategies, uncertainty, and computer-mediated communication: Toward a conceptual model. Human Communication Research, 28, 213-228.
Reddy, M. and J. Jansen (2008). A Model for Understanding Collaborative Information Behavior in Context: A Study of Two Healthcare Teams. Information Processing and Management, 44(1): p. 256-273.
Reddy, M. and Dourish, P. (2002). A Finger on the Pulse: Temporal Rhythms and Information Seeking in Medical Work. Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work CSCW 2002 (New Orleans, LA). New York: ACM.
Richards, D. V. (2006). Posting personal information on the Internet: A case for changing the legal regime created by § 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Texas Law Review, 85(5), 1321–1357.
Sonnenwald, D.H. and Pierce, L.G. (2000). Information behavior in dynamic group work contexts: interwoven situational awareness, dense social networks and contested collaboration in command and control. Information Processing and Management. 36: 461-479.
Schefcick. E, P. (2004) The Information Seeking Behavior of Private Investigators: A Study of Investigators in North Carolina and Georgia. A Master’s Paper for the M.S. in L.S degree.
Shirky C. (2008) Here comes everybody. Allan Lane: New York.
Sutton, J. Palen, L., & Shklovski, I (2008). Backchannels on the Front Lines: Emergent Use of Social Media in the 2007 Southern California Fires. In the Proceedings of the 5th International ISCRAM Conference (Washington, DC., May 2008). PDF available.
Shklovski, I., Palen, L, & Sutton, J. (2008) Finding Community through Information and Communication Technology in Disaster Events. In Proceedings of the ACM conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 127-136.
Starbird, K., Palen, L., Hughes, A., & S. Vieweg (2010). Chatter on the Red: What Hazards Threat Reveals about the Social Life of Micro-blogged Information. In the Proceedings of the 2010 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), (Savannah, Georgia, USA). PDF available.
Thompson, J. B. (1995). The media and modernity: A social theory of the media.Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Tilly, C. (2004). Social movements, 1768–2004. Paradigm Publishers.
Vieweg, S., Palen, L., Sophia B. Liu, Hughes, A., & J. Sutton (2008). Collective Intelligence in Disaster: Examination of the Phenomenon in the Aftermath of the 2007 Virginia Tech Shooting. In the Proceedings of the 5th International ISCRAM Conference (Washington, DC, USA, May 2008). PDF available.
Wang, Fei Y., Zeng, Daniel, Hendler, James A., Zhang, Qingpeng, Feng, Zhuo, Gao, Yanqing, Wang, Hui, and Lai, Guanpi, (2010). "A Study of the Human Flesh Search Engine: Crowd-Powered Expansion of Online Knowledge," Computer, vol. 43, no. 8, pp. 45-53.
Zhou, Y. (2009). Human flesh search engine: An analysis of collective online behavior in China. Information, Communication & Society, 12(3), 388–406. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691180802647392