Opinion leadership is leadership by an active media user who interprets the meaning of media messages or content for lower-end media users. Typically the opinion leader is held in high esteem by those who accept their opinions. Opinion leadership comes from the theory of two-step flow of communication propounded by Paul Lazarsfeld and Elihu Katz. Significant developers of the theory have been Robert K. Merton, C. Wright Mills and Bernard Berelson. This theory is one of several models that try to explain the diffusion of innovations, ideas, or commercial products.
Video Opinion leadership
Types
Merton distinguishes two types of opinion leadership: monomorphic and polymorphic. Typically, opinion leadership is viewed as a monomorphic, domain-specific measure of individual differences, that is, a person that is an opinion leader in one field may be a follower in another field. An example of a monomorphic opinion leader in the field of computer technology, might be a neighborhood computer service technician. The technician has access to far more information on this topic than the average consumer and has the requisite background to understand the information, though the same person might be a follower at another field (for example sports) and ask others for advice. In contrast, polymorphic opinion leaders are able to influence others in a broad range of domains. Variants of polymorphic opinion leadership include market mavenism, personality strength and generalized opinion leadership. So far, there is little consensus as to the degree these concepts operationalize the same or simply related constructs.
Maps Opinion leadership
Characteristics
In his article "The Two Step Flow of Communication", Elihu Katz, found opinion leaders to have more influence on people's opinions, actions, and behaviors than the media. Opinion leaders are seen to have more influence than the media for a number of reasons. Opinion leaders are seen as trustworthy and non-purposive. People do not feel they are being tricked into thinking a certain way about something if they get information from someone they know. However, the media can be seen as forcing a concept on the public and therefore will be less influential. While the media can act as a reinforcing agent, opinion leaders have a more changing or determining role in an individual's opinion or action.
Factors for leadership
In his article, Elihu Katz answers the question, "Who is an opinion leader?" One or more of these factors make noteworthy opinion leaders:
- expression of values
- professional competence
- nature of their social network.
Opinion leaders are individuals who obtain more media coverage than others and are especially educated on a certain issue. They seek the acceptance of others and are especially motivated to enhance their social status. In the jargon of public relations, they are called thought leaders. Research has also found that opinion leaders tend to be boundary spanners.
Examples
In a strategic attempt to engage the public in environmental issues and his nonprofit, The Climate Project, Al Gore used the concept of opinion leaders. Gore found opinion leaders by recruiting individuals who were educated on environmental issues and saw themselves as influential in their community and amongst their friends and family. From there, he trained the opinion leaders on the information he wanted them to spread and enabled them to influence their communities. By using opinion leaders, Gore was able to educate and influence many Americans to take notice of climate change and change their actions.
Matthew Nisbet describes the use of opinion leaders as intermediaries between scientists and the public as a way to reach the public via trained individuals who are more closely engaged with their communities, such as "teachers, business leaders, attorneys, policymakers, neighborhood leaders, students, and media professionals." Examples of initiatives that take this approach include Science & Engineering Ambassadors, sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences, and Science Booster Clubs, coordinated by the National Center for Science Education.
See also
- Consumer behaviour
- Marketing
- Public opinion
References
Further reading
- Keller E. B., Berry J.(2003). "The influentials", New York, Free Press.
- Song, X., Chi, Y., Hino, K., Tseng, B. (2007). Identifying opinion leaders in the blogosphere. Proceedings of the sixteenth ACM conference on Conference on information and knowledge management
- Valente, T. (2007). "Identifying Opinion Leaders to Promote Behavior Change". Health Education Behavior 34(6), pp. 881-896
- Eric Johnson, SVP - General Manager of InsiteResearch - An Advanced Health Media Company "Hitting the Mark with KOL Management: Identification, Segmentation and Targeting"
- Anderson, Christine A; Titler, Marita G (2014). "Development and verification of an agent-based model of opinion leadership". Implementation Science. 9. doi:10.1186/s13012-014-0136-6. Simulates the development of opinion-leadership in communities of nurses, e.g. with regard to adaptation of new healthcare technologies. Based on normative models such as Bayesian epistemology and Organization of Cognitive Labor.
- Karim Grissa (2016), What Makes Opinion Leaders Sharing Brand Content on Networking Sites (LinkedIn, Viadeo, Xing...), In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Digital Economy, Carthage < doi:10.1109/ICDEC.2016.7563139
External links
- Developing Win-Win Key Opinion Leader Relationships, Pharma Marketing News, Vol. 2, #10; Reprint #210-01.
- Bodendorf, F., Kaiser, C. (2009). "Detecting opinion leaders and trends in online social networks". 2nd ACM workshop on Social web search and mining.
Source of article : Wikipedia
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