opinion Leadership

Social presentation

1. Opinion leadership Ramesh chandra nautiyal I.D.- 53981

2. Introduction Opinion leaders are individuals who lead in influencing others' opinions about innovations. opinion leadership , the degree to which an individual is able informally to influence other individuals' attitudes or overt behavior in a desired way with relative frequency.

3. Introduction The behavior of opinion leaders is important in determining the rate of adoption of an innovation in a social system. in fact, the diffusion curve has its usual s-shape because of the time at which the opinion leaders adopt and owing to their ability to activate diffusion networks in a social system.

4. The various models of communication flow T o understand the nature of opinion leadership in diffusion, we now examine several models of communication flows. Hypodermic Needle Model The Two-Step Flow Model

5. Hypodermic Needle Model The hypodermic needle model postulated that the mass media had direct, immediate, and powerful effects on a mass audience .

6. The Two-Step Flow Model ‘ ’Ideas often flow from radio and print to opinion leaders and from these to the less active sections of the population“ The first step, from sources to opinion leaders , is mainly a transfer of information. whereas the second step, from opinion leaders to their followers , also involves the spread of influence.

7. Type of Opinion Leader Monomorphism is the tendency for an individual to act as an opinion leader for only a single topic . Polymorphism is the degree to which an individual acts as an opinion leader for a variety of topics .

8. How Homophily and Heterophily affects the flow of communication Homophily is the degree to which pairs of individuals who interact are similar in certain attributes, like beliefs, education, and social status. Heterophily is the degree to which pairs of individuals who interact are different in certain attributes.

9. Case study Rao and Rogers' (1980) study in two Indian villages. One village was very innovative, and the other village was quite traditional. Diffusion networks for a new rice variety were more homophilous in the traditional village. The opinion leaders here were elderly and had little education. In comparison, the opinion leaders in the innovative village were younger, highly educated, and high in social caste. In the more traditional village, diffusion networks links were highly homophilous on caste. But in the progressive village, the rice variety innovation started at the top of the social structure and spread downward across the caste lines through heterophilous network links.

10. Measures of opinion leadership Self-Designating Method Sociometric Method Key Informant Method Observation Method

11. OPINION LEADERSHIP MEASUREMENT METHOD DESCRIPTION OF METHOD SAMPLE QUESTIONS ASKED SELF-DESIGNATING METHOD Each respondent is asked a series of questions to determine the degree to which he or she perceives himself or herself to be an opinion leader. “Do you influence other people in their selection of products?” SOCIOMETRIC METHOD Members of a social system are asked to identify to whom they give advice and to whom they go for advice. “Whom do you ask?”“Who asks you for info about that product category?”

12. OPINION LEADERSHIP MEASUREMENT METHOD DESCRIPTION OF METHOD SAMPLE QUESTIONS ASKED KEY INFORMANT METHOD Carefully selected key informants in a social system are asked to designate opinion leaders “Who are the most influential people in the group?” OBSERVATION METHOD Identify and record communication network links as they occur None

13. How do opinion leaders differ from their followers? External communication- Opinion leaders have greater exposure to mass media than their followers. Opinion leaders are more cosmopolite than their followers. Opinion leaders have greater change agent contact than their followers. Accessibility- they must have interpersonal networks with their followers. Opinion leaders must be accessible. One indicant of such accessibility is social participation; face-to-face communication about new ideas occurs at meetings of formal organizations and through informal discussions. Opinion leaders have greater social participation than their followers.

14. Socioeconomic Status- Opinion leaders have higher socioeconomic status than their followers. Innovativeness- Opinion leaders are more innovative than their followers. Innovativeness, Opinion Leadership, and System Norms- When a social system's norms favor change, opinion leaders are more innovative , but when the norms do not favor change, opinion leaders are not especially innovative. How do opinion leaders differ from their followers?

15. Case study Herzog et al (1968) concluded from their study of Brazilian villages that: "In most traditional communities, neither the leaders nor their followers are innovative, and as a result, the community remains traditional. In the most modern communities, community norms favor innovativeness and both the leaders and followers are innovative’’.

16. Case study I n a study of Colombian farmers, Rogers with Svenning (1969) found that opinion leaders in the relatively progressive villages were more innovative than their followers. But in the traditional villages the opinion leaders were only slightly more innovative than their followers and were older and less cosmopolite. So the system's norms determine whether or not opinion leaders are innovators.