Opinion Leaders


 
 

In the 1940's voting study, people were asked what contributed to their decision, and the widespread answer was other people.  After further investigation into who exactly these people were, some interesting findings were discovered.  According to Katz and Lazarsfeld, opinion leaders are "individuals in the community who receive information from the media and pass it on to their peers (Littlejohn, 1989, p. 262).

The opinion leader comes from all types of groups: occupational, social, community, etc.  This person is often difficult to distinguish from others.  Rather the title of opinion leader is a specific role within a specific "process of interpersonal communication" (p. 262).  Therefore, this person could change from leader to not depending on the issue and circumstance.  Also, a person wasn't an opinion leader across the board.  If a person was an opinion leader in politics, it wasn't necessarily true in entertainment.
   While there was no singular trait separating the opinion leader out, Lazarsfeld and Katz  did find some similarities.  Perhaps most important, the leaders had interest in the subject matter.  They may have held positions in the community, they were gregarious and knew many people, and they had contact with relevant information (Lazarsfeld et al, p.99).  They were also likely to have exposure to the particular media which their interest fell.  For instance, opinion leaders in fashion had far more exposure to fashion magazines.

The next question of interest then was who influenced the opinion leaders that influenced the friends, family and other people.  This led to a new hypothesis of a two-step flow of communication.  This offers explanation how indirectly the media effects the opinions of the public through the opinion leaders.