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
 To 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.

7. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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.

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

13. 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?”

14. 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

15. 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.

16. 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?

17. 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’’.

18. Case study
 In 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.