CONSTRAINED OPINION LEADER INFLUENCE IN AN ELECTORAL CAMPAIGN SEASON: REVISITING THE TWO-STEP FLOW THEORY WITH MULTI-AGENT SIMULATION

2007 ◽  
Vol 10 (02) ◽  
pp. 233-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
FRANK C. S. LIU
Keyword(s):  
Communication Networks ◽  
News Media ◽  
Great Influence ◽  
Opinion Leader ◽  
Flow Theory ◽  
Opinion Leaders ◽  
The Public ◽  
Step Flow ◽  
Leader Influence ◽  
Agent Simulation

The conventional wisdom derived from the two-step flow theory suggests that opinion leaders have great influence on their followers. However, it has been difficult for social scientists to measure and describe the extent to which political opinion leaders influence voters, especially when voters today access multiple information sources like communication networks and self-selected news media. This paper fills this gap by using agent-based modeling to represent what the two-step flow theory describes about opinion leader influence and refines the theory based on the findings. First, opinion leader influence does not diffuse to the public without homogeneous communication networks. Second, opinion leader influence usually does not diffuse widely to the public because it inevitably faces resistance from self-strengthening communication networks.

Online Opinion Leaders in the Health Promotion Digital Era

2021 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 295-309
Author(s):  
Joyce Cheah Lynn-Sze ◽  
◽  
Azlina Kamaruddin ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Health Promotion ◽  
Health Communication ◽  
Opinion Leader ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Opinion Leaders ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
The Public

Health opinion leaders have widely embraced social media for health promotion and public health communication which can make a strong influence on the public decision making. However, despite the growing relevance of public health threats such as infectious diseases, pandemic influenza and natural disasters, research has paid little attention to the qualities of opinion leaders. Moreover, there is limited evidence that public health organisations use social media appropriately to engage in meaningful conversations with audiences. Thus, the aims of the study are to describe principles of communication practised by online opinion leaders to promote health issues, to discuss the strategies of social media used, to explain the opinion leaders’ influence attributes in health decision making and finally to develop a model of online opinion leader in the contemporary health promotion era. Content analysis was conducted on Facebook postings of five selected health opinion leaders. In addition, semi-structured interviews with 10 followers were conducted. The findings of the study revealed that there are three principles of communication practised by online opinion leaders, which are language, interaction and themes. There are three strategies opinion leaders use to influence the public: social connectivity, social support and social consultation. Furthermore, there are five opinion leaders’ attributes that influence the public’s decision making, namely personality, authenticity, trust/credibility, professional knowledge and social position. The model would be beneficial in educating and guiding the current public health opinion leaders in order to establish health and social well-being. Keywords: Online opinion leader, online health communication, public health, two-step flow theory, decision making.

Misinformation in a riot: a two-step flow view

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 438-453 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie Pang ◽  
Joshua Ng
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Flow Theory ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Opinion Leaders ◽  
User Characteristics ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Mixed Methods Approach ◽  
Step Flow ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose Misinformation can have lasting impacts in the management and control of a public emergency. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how misinformation flows and how user characteristics can shape such flows in the context of a violent riot in Singapore. Design/methodology/approach The authors apply the two-step flow theory and discuss the mixed methods approach involving wrangling Twitter data and descriptive analysis to develop and analyse two corpuses of misinformation related to the riot. Findings The findings are mostly consistent with the two-step flow theory, in that misinformation flows to the masses from opinion leaders (as indicated by higher measures such as online social influence and followers/following ratio). In the presence of misinformation, tweets opposing such misinformation may not always come from opinion leaders. Practical implications The authors work furthers knowledge about how misinformation goes viral, which provides practical implications to help policymakers and scholars in understanding and managing the dynamics and pitfalls of misinformation during an emergency. Originality/value This paper tackles the problem of misinformation in public emergencies using a mixed methods approach and contributes to ongoing theoretical work on managing online misinformation especially in public emergencies and crises.

Spread the Green Word: A Social Community Perspective Into Environmentally Sustainable Behavior

2019 ◽  
Vol 51 (5) ◽  
pp. 561-589 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathaniel Geiger ◽  
Janet K. Swim ◽  
Leland Glenna
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Opinion Leader ◽  
Opinion Leaders ◽  
Proenvironmental Behavior ◽  
Social Community ◽  
Environmentally Sustainable ◽  
Social Communities ◽  
Leader Influence ◽  
Social Network Structure ◽  
Sustainable Behavior

Engagement in proenvironmental behavior can be understood in part by considering how individuals operate as members of social communities and are influenced by these communities. In the present work, we use social network analysis to explore how social network structure predicts proenvironmental behavior. We consider three types of behaviors—(a) private, (b) public nonorganizational, and (c) organizational behaviors—and consider the potential for (i) behavioral diffusion and (ii) two types of opinion leader influence for each of these three behaviors within a religious social community. Results are consistent with patterns indicating diffusion for public nonorganizational and organizational, but not private behaviors. In contrast, being well connected with many opinion leaders to whom one would go for advice (but not simply being friends with these individuals) is associated with greater engagement in all three types of proenvironmental behavior.

scholarly journals FİKİR LİDERİNİN AĞIZDAN AĞIZA PAZARLAMA YOLUYLA TÜKETİCİ SATIN ALMA DAVRANIŞI ÜZERİNDEKİ ETKİSİ: AKILLI TELEFON KULLANICILARI ÜZERİNE BİR ÇALIŞMA

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmet UYAR
Keyword(s):  
Word Of Mouth ◽  
Smart Phone ◽  
Opinion Leader ◽  
Opinion Leaders ◽  
Communication Model ◽  
Leader Influence ◽  
Meaningful Relationship ◽  
Questionnaire Form ◽  
Buying Behaviour

The purpose of this study is to reveal how those who are considered to be leaders of opinion in society influence the buying behaviour of consumers through word-of-mouth marketing. For this purpose, the concepts of opinion leader and word-of-mouth marketing are defined, and the role of opinion leaders in the multi-step communication model is addressed. Within the scope of the study, a questionnaire was administered to some smart phone users relevant to the issue. The questionnaire form was administered to 388 consumers. The frequency and percentage distributions of the obtained data were calculated, the t-test and Variance (ANOVA) Analysis were utilised for comparative analyses, and a correlation analysis was carried out to determine the relationship between word-of-mouth marketing and opinion leaders. The findings obtained indicate that opinion leaders have a significant influence on the buying process of consumers and that there was a meaningful relationship between mouth-to-mouth marketing and opinion leader influence.

scholarly journals STRATEGI KAMPANYE PUBLIC AFFAIRS DALAM ORGANISASI NON PROFIT

Gunahumas ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 293-302
Author(s):  
Welsi Damayanti
Keyword(s):  
Interest Groups ◽  
Opinion Leader ◽  
Public Affairs ◽  
Opinion Leaders ◽  
Press Releases ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
The Public ◽  
Engagement Strategies ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government

Abstrak Tujuan penelitian ini untuk mendeskripsikan strategi public affairs dalam kampanye yang dilakukan oleh Gerakan Indonesia Diet Kantong Plastik (GIDKP). Hasil penelitian ini menunjukan bahwa GIDKP menggunakan strategi public affairs dengan melakukan pendekatan terhadap pemerintah, kelompok kepentingan dan media. Pendekatan terhadap pemerintah dengan strategi direct lobbying dan grassroot lobbying. Pendekatan terhadap kelompok kepentingan dengan strategi engagement dan opinion leader. GIDKP menjadi mediator antara Kementerian Lingkungan Hidup dan Kehutanan (KLHK) dan Asosiasi Peritel Indonesia (Aprindo) jika terjadi konflik. Strategi pendekatan terhadap media yaitu proactive communications dengan melakukan kontak langsung seperti siaran pers dan konferensi pers. Selain itu pendekatan media menggunakan strategi semi control dengan teknik menjadi pembicara atau narasumber di siaran media. Strategi pendekatan media yang terakhir adalah bypassing dengan mengembangkan media alternatif yang menfaatkan teknologi saat ini. Kata kunci : Strategi publik; Kampanye; Organisasi non profit Abstract The purpose of this study is to describe the public affairs strategy in the campaign carried out by Gerakan Indonesia Diet Kantong Plastik (GIDKP). The results of this study indicate that GIDKP uses a public affairs strategy by approaching the government, interest groups and the media. Approach the government with direct lobbying and grassroot lobbying strategies. Approach to interest groups with engagement strategies and opinion leaders. GIDKP becomes a mediator between the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK) and the Indonesian Retailers Association (Aprindo) in the event of a conflict. The approach to the media strategy is proactive communications by making direct contact such as press releases and press conferences. In addition, the media approach uses a semi control strategy with the technique of being a speaker or resource person in media broadcasts. The last media approach strategy is bypassing by developing alternative media that utilize current technology. Keywords : public strategy; campaign; non-profit organization

Detecting Opinion Leaders in Online Communities Based on an Improved PageRank Algorithm

2014 ◽  
Vol 543-547 ◽  
pp. 3524-3527 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lin Cheng Jiang ◽  
Fang Fang Li ◽  
Bin Ge ◽  
Wei Dong Xiao ◽  
Jiu Yang Tang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Web 2.0 ◽  
Online Communities ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Opinion Leader ◽  
Opinion Leaders ◽  
The Public ◽  
Pagerank Algorithm ◽  
Public Sentiment ◽  
Detecting Method

With the rapid development of web 2.0, online communities have become an important way to disclosure and spread the public sentiment. Opinion leaders in online communities play an important role during the formation of public opinion. The paper designs and implements an opinion leader detecting method based on an improved PageRank algorithm. The improved PageRank algorithm uses link relevance to define the weight of the link between users. The first step is crawling data from online communities and preprocessing them. Then construct the weight matrix by calculating link relevance between users. Finally, use the improved PageRank algorithm to rank users and detect opinion leaders. The experimental results show that, compared with the baselines, the proposed method can effectively identify opinion leaders in online communities.

scholarly journals Criterial Based Opinion Leader’s Selection for Decision-Making Using Ant Colony Optimization

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Xu Qiang ◽  
Zhao Huiqi ◽  
Farhad Ali ◽  
Shah Nazir
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Ant Colony Optimization ◽  
Communication Networks ◽  
Expert Knowledge ◽  
Optimization Technique ◽  
Opinion Dynamics ◽  
Opinion Leader ◽  
Ant Colony ◽  
Opinion Leaders ◽  
Leader Selection

The Internet has already become a medium for people to access information, express their views, and connect with one another through various media and tools as a result of its rapid global development. Web 2.0 has become increasingly important in people’s daily lives. With the passing of time, many online communities, such as blogs, forums, and websites, are becoming more interactive. Individuals can easily express their opinions publicly and see what others say about their opinions. In a social network, an opinion leader is a powerful individual who is an expert in a particular field and has a large number of people who follow his or her comments or ideas. Companies and governments may contact the most powerful people after discovering them in order to influence sales or guide public opinion, respectively. In heterogeneous communication networks, opinion leaders serve as an influencer for the acceptance and dissemination of new products and users in marketing. Others’ drives, values, perceptions, motivations, and actions can be influenced by opinion leaders. These influences have a major effect on other customers’ policymaking processes. Opinion leaders come in a variety of demographic shapes; in general, they are committed, ambitious, and dynamic individuals with excellent academic and social edifications who persuade customers through their expert knowledge. Opinions and values are the most important variables in human experiences in social phenomena. The method of assessing opinions is extremely difficult since people often change their minds when speaking with others. The study of the evolution and formation of opinions in a social group is known as opinion dynamics, and it is based on collective decision-making. The bounded confidence rule is one of the intrinsic interaction principles in the dynamics of human actions. Many models have been created to date to explore the dynamics of leaders’ decision-making. Due to the social network’s high complexity and the randomness and contingency of their behavior, identifying opinion leaders in the network is difficult. Organizations and entrepreneurs must choose which opinion leaders to partner with to gain a deeper understanding of how to communicate with them to promote various goods and services. For the opinion leader’s selection optimization, the proposed framework feature-based opinion leader selection is utilized using the ant colony optimization technique that selects the best opinion leader based on their unique features. The proposed method will address the opinion leader selection problem.

scholarly journals Functions of the opinion leader and he or she performs

2015 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Diana Liepinytė-Kytrienė
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Opinion Leader ◽  
Opinion Leaders ◽  
The Public ◽  
Aesthetic Appeal ◽  
Social Decisions ◽  
Media Channels ◽  
Year 2013

The aim of the article is to describe the functions of the opinion leader and he or she performs. The news portal „Delfi.lt“ articles from the year 2013, in which the most popular (according to the data of the survey company TNS LT) opinion leaders express their views serve as a basis in the article. Theoretical presumptions that their personal opinions shape the public opinion, affect social decisions and actions, are applied. Although the opinion leaders achieve popularity firstly through social activeness; however, for the purpose of persuasiveness an important role is attributed to linguistic peculiarities. In many cases, they determine the aspects the readers are to notice and remember. A person working towards becoming an opinion leader must meet the requirements of media channels, observe the general oratory requirements (language regularity, purity, clarity, simplicity, consistency, vividness, appropriateness, and aesthetic appeal), and fulfil the main functions of his or her text: to explain, prove, and persuade.

How to Tell the Truth without Outraging the Press?

MedienJournal ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 37
Author(s):  
Li Xiguang
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Public Affairs ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
The Public ◽  
News Stories ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
Chinese News Media

The commercialization of meclia in China has cultivated a new journalism business model characterized with scandalization, sensationalization, exaggeration, oversimplification, highly opinionated news stories, one-sidedly reporting, fabrication and hate reporting, which have clone more harm than good to the public affairs. Today the Chinese journalists are more prey to the manipu/ation of the emotions of the audiences than being a faithful messenger for the public. Une/er such a media environment, in case of news events, particularly, during crisis, it is not the media being scared by the government. but the media itself is scaring the government into silence. The Chinese news media have grown so negative and so cynica/ that it has produced growing popular clistrust of the government and the government officials. Entering a freer but fearful commercially mediated society, the Chinese government is totally tmprepared in engaging the Chinese press effectively and has lost its ability for setting public agenda and shaping public opinions. 

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