8. The system of claim 7 , further comprising; a parameter-update processor configured to: recursively update the transmission graph until the transmission graph meets a predetermined criterion by recomputing the frequency of transmission and probability for each one of the plurality of edges.
8. The system of claim 7 , further comprising; a parameter-update processor configured to: recursively update the transmission graph until the transmission graph meets a predetermined criterion by recomputing the frequency of transmission and probability for each one of the plurality of edges. 10. The system of claim 8 , wherein the parties include at least one transmitting party that transmits information about the topic, and at least one receiving party that receives the information about the topic from the at least one transmitting party; and for certain communication paths along the transmission graph, the parameter-update processor is further configured to determine a probability that the receiving party writes about the topic.