Theoretically, Opinion Leader is a leader for
a certain group who gives details and information to lesser active people in
the group. Opinion leaders pick up information from mass media and they interpret
the information to their own language and pass on the information to the
people. Opinion leader only can be leader for their own group / field not for
all.
When
leaders are transforming the information, leaders may add their opinion on the
actual content. But also the Opinion leaders can filter the actual content
ensures the information is needed by the people. Leaders should be able to
influence public especially their followers to have same opinion. At least they
have strong opinion which able to create public opinion. Those leaders got the
power from many sources: it can be from culture capital (family background),
status social, and also reputation. These reasons will gain a trustworthy of
people to listen and follow leader’s opinion.
In
the past, opinion leader get the access to spread their opinion through
traditional way, they talk face to face and the opinion was spread. But now,
the communication channel improves, the opinion leader use new medium, which is
social media to deliver their opinion.
Opinion Leader
She is Melanie Subono, a multitalented woman.
She sings, writes, does business, and social media activist. She has more than
600.000 followers on twitter and 30.000 followers on instagram, she also has
own website; www.melaniesubono.com to publish her
writing, opinion, and campaign. Based on her writing and social media post, she
concerns to some issue such as; immigrant, women and fauna. Because of her writing, achievement in music
industry and contribution to social issue, she becomes popular in society.
She
becomes famous because her family background too. She comes from reputable
family; her father is Adrie subono who is one of the best music promoter;
Javaindo. Her grand father is Bj. Habibie who is third president of
Indonesia. Unintentionally, her family
background supports her to be influential in her society.
She also well known as the founder of some petition such as; the
immigrant case; Bukankah seharusnya dia membela mereka? #SupportImasTati. In June 2012, Melanie won
a campaign that forced Migrant Workers Task Force chairman Maftuh Basyuni to apologize
for his remarks about abused migrant workers. Another petitions; she asked for the House of
Representatives to not endorse Daming Sunusi as a Supreme Court justice for
making insulting remarks to rape victims. More than 10,000 Internet users
supported her cause by signing the petition over the course of only one day,
and the number is growing. It shows that she use
change.com as communication channel to spread her opinion to influence public
opinion.
Analysis of Case Study
A
couple of week ago, she also speaks out about the fauna care in Bali. She
critiques Bali government who states like in the picture. She posts it to her
instagram and a lot of her follower comment about it. Her caption on this post
is quite sensitive because she mentions to the government rudely. But she get
same thoughts from her followers, her follower agree of what she thinks. Not
only that, she also mention about the dog in twitter and got hundred of re-tweet.
Through
this context, why does she become opinion leader; she able to influence people
to have same thought. How does she become opinion leader? she pick up the news from mass media which is
kompas.com and pass on to the follower through her social media. She uses her
communication platform to convey her opinion to build public opinion. Not
only that, she also was interviewed by metro TV and discussed about immigrant
issue as her concern. This can be good example of opinion leader, because metro
TV was asking her opinion to a specific issue; immigrant. And she pass through
the opinion to the audience.
Relate
to Theory
Back
to her background, she is influenced by cultural capital. What kind of cultural
capital, which are family reputation and social status. This cultural capital
shapes the way of she is. Through this cultural capital, she defines herself as
someone who has power to influence others. This her identity impacts to the
character of her followers too, how the character defined them self and current
issue based on her perspective.
Talking
about ideology, she transfers her ideology; (what she interests) to the
follower and audience. Her aim of ideology framework through print or media;
which is to make people her followers have same perspective when they concerns
to several issue; migrant. She sets the framework by filtering and editing the,
message or information; so
She
also contribute to create an imagined community, for example; the dog’ case in
Bali. Unintentionally, she states that behalf of dog lovers against it. It
means she use the term of behalf which is all of dog lovers to encourage a
society to be community. How she shows her semiotics also quite amigo, because actually,
she uses media to deliver the information. I think she represents her self
through personality, she doesn’t has specific strategies for her branding but
in my perspective; she already set her future and keep maintaining the
relationship with followers via social media.
For Introduction in Sociology
HHM
5th Semester - Binus International
Explore what you have learned; the new things or your creative thinking. Its like you take an action! kalau gue baru nonton action movie neh, pengen nya coba nembak di senayan hahaha and I did it! for several times gue nembak di senayan; lumayan lho untuk melatih konsentrasi (BELAJAR FOKUS) dan fisik. And Go out! make a new friend will be more awesome. Idw; kalau ketemu orang baru I'm super exciting to know their story; it doesn't mean gue kepo ya! but I want to be a good listener; so I can listen people life' story and I can learn from it. One more things! Go and do something out of your comfort zone. 
