Political Opinion Leadership Research Articles

Who cares? How personal political characteristics are related to online counteractions against hate speech

Abstract Although many Internet users have encountered hate speech online, interventions against those incidents are unlikely. To learn more about online counteractions against hate speech, which we conceptualize as a form of online civic participation, we conducted an online survey representing adult German Internet users (N = 2,691). We investigated what distinguishes users who intervene against hate speech, focusing on associations between citizens’ prior counteractions and their personal political characteristics, their attributed responsibility for intervening against hate speech to social and political actors, and their institutional trust. Results indicate that especially Internet users’ personal political characteristics (e.g., internal political efficacy, political opinion leadership) as well as trust in regulative political institutions are positively associated with counteracting against online hate speech. While social media use and previous experience with counteractions increased the likelihood of users counteracting against hate speech, authoritarian attitudes and attributing responsibility for intervening to platform operators decreased it.

Political Opinion Leaders in High-Choice Information Environments: Are They More Informed Than Others?

ABSTRACT One implication of the transition to high-choice media environments is that what information people are exposed to depend less on journalistic curation and more on social, algorithmic, and personal curation. This has sparked a renewed interest in the concept of political opinion leaders, who are often assumed to be more interested in and informed about politics and society. Theoretically, political opinion leaders could hence help disseminate information to less interested and informed. At the same time, there are theoretical reasons for why political opinion leaders may be more prone to politically motivated reasoning, which may lead them to believe in and disseminate misinformation. Thus far, there is only limited research on whether political opinion leaders are more informed than others that also takes into consideration that some facts are contested, whereas other facts are uncontested. Hence, this paper seeks to investigate the relationship between political opinion leadership and knowledge, distinguishing between (a) uncontested and (b) contested facts. Among other things, findings show that those who score high in political opinion leadership traits in general are not more knowledgeable about contested and uncontested facts.

The role of hyperactive Twitter accounts in the diffusion of political information

ABSTRACT Social media virality is intertwined with content’s ability to trigger specific reactions; however, little is known regarding the behavioural component of political information diffusion. This study uses big data to investigate the significance of hyperactive social media use in the retransmission of information produced by political opinion leaders on Twitter during Poland’s 2019 European parliamentary election campaign. Using the isolation forest method, the research identified the social bot-like (semi)automated or human-controlled Twitter handles which are referred to as hyperactive accounts. The study finds that the hyperactive accounts produced almost all reactions in our sample (N = 114,036), but their average activity was relatively moderate and did not exceed human capabilities. Although their retweets equal 0.46% of the retweets obtained by political opinion leaders, the random forest regression models suggest that the likes and retweets from hyperactive accounts are the most important determinants of the dissemination of political opinion leaders’ tweets. The results draw attention to the alarming phenomenon of the further increase in Twitter’s interactional asymmetry.

The Political Landscape of the U.S. Twitterverse

ABSTRACT Prior research suggests that Twitter users in the United States are more politically engaged and more partisan than the American citizenry, who are generally characterized by low levels of political knowledge and disinterest in political affairs. This study seeks to understand this disconnect by conducting an observational analysis of the most popular accounts on American Twitter. We identify opinion leaders by drawing random samples of ordinary American Twitter users and observing whom they follow. We estimate the ideological leaning and political relevance of these opinion leaders and crowdsource estimates of perceived ideology. We find little evidence that American Twitter is as politicized as it is made out to be, with politics and hard news outlets constituting a small subset of these opinion leaders. Ordinary Americans are significantly more likely to follow nonpolitical opinion leaders on Twitter than political opinion leaders. We find no evidence of polarization among these opinion leaders either. While a few political professional categories are more polarized than others, the overall polarization dissipates when we factor in the rate at which the opinion leaders tweet: a large number of vocal nonpartisan opinion leaders drowns out the partisan voices on the platform. Our results suggest that the degree to which Twitter is political has likely been overstated in the past. Our findings have implications about how we use Twitter and social media, in general, to represent public opinion in the United States.

Assessing Dimensions of the Security-Liberty Trade-off in the United States

The trade-off between security and liberty has been a leading frame for understanding public opinion about domestic surveillance policies. Most of the empirical work explicitly examining whether individuals meet the trade-off framework’s core attitudinal assumptions comes from European studies. This study uses a survey of US residents to assess the veracity of the assumptions embedded in the trade-off framework, namely whether domestic counterterrorism policies are simultaneously viewed as improving security and decreasing liberty. We find that the vast majority of US respondents do not meet the basic attitudinal assumptions of the trade-off frame. Next, we evaluate the source of these attitudes with a focus on whether attitudes toward surveillance policies merely relate to core political values or whether they also depend on the messages from political leaders. We find that both political values and opinion leadership shape these attitudes. Finally, because general attitudes towards surveillance and privacy often fail to have practical implications, we assess whether these attitudes matter for understanding the structure of policy support. Our results show that heightened terrorism threat positively associates with increased support for counterterrorism policies only when people believe these policies are effective security tools.

Yeni Medya Çağında Siyasi Konuşma ve Kanaat Önderliği: 24 Haziran Cumhurbaşkanlığı Seçimi Örneği

Yeni Medya Çağında Siyasi Konuşma ve Kanaat Önderliği: 24 Haziran Cumhurbaşkanlığı Seçimi Örneği

Designing local renewable energy communities to increase social acceptance: Evidence from a choice experiment in Austria, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland

Resistance of the local population to new energy infrastructure may hinder achieving the European Union's goal that 32% of energy consumption come from renewable sources. A vast literature is available on the social acceptance of specific renewable energy technologies, but existing research lacks assessments regarding comprehensive transformations to local energy systems. Moreover, the promising energy storage technology power-to-gas has not yet been addressed in acceptance studies. This paper fills these gaps by analysing data from a choice experiment survey with 2000 respondents across four nations (Germany, Austria, Italy, and Switzerland). Results from the analysis show that solar farms and power-to-gas infrastructure increase acceptance of local energy communities, while wind farms have an ambiguous effect, and gas power plants and power lines decrease acceptance. The derived monthly willingness to pay estimates for the acceptance-increasing technologies ranges from 8.5€ for power-to-gas to 29.5€ for photovoltaics. Additionally, we investigate whether stated support from political opinion leaders at the local, national, and EU levels can increase the acceptance of renewable energy systems. Results suggest that Italian choices are influenced by the opinions of EU and national governmental bodies (+3.5% and +2.7%), and that Swiss choices are sensitive to the opinions of local politicians (+2.3%).

New News Media, New Opinion Leaders? How Political Opinion Leaders Navigate the Modern High-choice Media Environment

New News Media, New Opinion Leaders? How Political Opinion Leaders Navigate the Modern High-choice Media Environment

Who is responsible for Twitter’s echo chamber problem? Evidence from 2016 U.S. election networks

ABSTRACTThis study examined the echo chamber phenomenon and opinion leadership on Twitter based on the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Network analysis and ‘big data’ analytics were employed to analyze more than 50 million tweets about the two presidential candidates, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, during the election cycle. Overall, the results suggested that Twitter communities discussing Trump and Clinton differed significantly in the level of political homogeneity and opinion leadership, and that certain opinion leaders were responsible of creating homogeneous communities on Twitter. This study made a theoretical contribution to the literature by linking opinion leadership and Twitter’s network structure and shedding light on what may have caused the echo chamber problem to happen in an emerging media landscape.

Progress and Challenges for Implementation of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa Policy on Biotechnology and Biosafety.

In 2001, the Meeting of the COMESA Ministers of Agriculture raised concerns that proliferation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) could impact significantly on trade and food security in the region. This triggered studies on a regional approach to biotechnology and biosafety policy in Eastern and Southern Africa. The studies and stakeholder consultations revealed that farm incomes would increase if they switched from conventional varieties of cotton and maize to genetically modified (GM) counterparts. Commercial risks associated with exports to GM sensitive destinations, e.g., EU were negligible. Intra-regional trade would be affected since exports of GM sensitive commodities, such as maize, cotton, and soya bean, mainly go to other African countries. These findings justified the need to consider a regional approach to biosafety and led to the drafting of a regional policy in 2009. The draft policies were discussed in regional and national workshops between 2010 and 2012 for wider ownership. The workshops involved key stakeholders including ministries of agriculture, trade, environment, national biosafety focal points, biosafety competent authorities, academia, seed traders, millers, the media, food relief agencies, the industry, civil society, competent authorities, and political opinion leaders. The COMESA Council of Ministers in February 2014 adopted the COMESA policy on biotechnology and biosafety that takes into account the sovereign right of each member state. Key provisions of the policy include recognition of the benefits and risks associated with GMOs; establishment of a regional-level biosafety risk-assessment system; national-level final decision, and capacity building assistance to member states. The policies are the first regional effort in Africa to develop a coordinated mechanism for handling biosafety issues related to GMO use. A regional approach to biotechnology and biosafety is expected to foster inter-country cooperation through the sharing of knowledge, expertise, experiences, and resources.

Constructing celebrities as political endorsers: parasocial acts, cultural power, and cultural capital

This article explores three underlying codes that construct celebrities as political endorsers: parasocial acts, cultural power, and cultural capital. These mechanisms drive contingent endorsement abilities among popular media celebrities in the prominent context of political opinion leadership during national elections. The social, cultural, and political contexts situated in the Philippines provide rich avenues of understanding of how celebrities are constructed as a social influence emanating from everyday socialization among social groups. A series of focus groups in Quezon City involving voters stratified by socioeconomic class and gender and exemplifying everyday interactions among individuals served as linguistic resources for analysis. Findings suggest that celebrities are symbolically constructed as intimate and significant others (parasocial acts) created through everyday media consumption complemented by amplified social interactions. These parasocial acts with celebrities serve as foundations ...

Selectively Social Politics: The Differing Roles of Media Use on Political Discussion

In the modern media environment, people are afforded a variety of options for political information. In addition, people now use multiple media sources (e.g., television, radio, blogs) to obtain information about all aspects of politics (Eveland, 2004; Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, 2009). The purpose of this study was to examine how use of particular media sources influenced the frequency of political discussion with people from the same political party (political in-group members) and people from a different political party (political out-group members). Guided by a uses and gratifications perspective, which emphasizes the role of the user in media effects, we examined how specific user background characteristics (e.g., age, sex, political opinion leadership, political social identity, political content affinity), motives for using traditional and social media for political information, and use of different media sources work together to influence discussion with political in-group and out-group members. Our results allowed us to identify several distinct differences between people who talk to political in-group and out-group members.

Sunday School Teacher, Culture Warrior: The Politics of Lay Leaders in Three Religious Traditions*

ObjectivesPolitical theorists have praised civic organizations as spaces for open political deliberation. But their leadership structure privileges some voices over others. In congregations, clergy set the context for political discussion. We argue that volunteer religious leaders also shape political talk in local churches. Lay leaders serve as political opinion leaders within local churches, with the power to either deepen or bridge political polarization over religion and morality.MethodsWe compare lay leaders across three religious traditions, using a unique measure from the 2005 Baylor Religion Survey.ResultsLay leaders in evangelical, mainline, and Catholic traditions are more politically active than other attenders, but evangelical lay leaders are also more morally conservative than others in their tradition. Comparing across traditions, we argue that evangelical lay leaders foster greater political cohesion within their tradition.ConclusionWe identify voluntary group leadership as a mechanism that allows civic organizations to generate political presence.

Political discussion, opinion leadership and trust

The recent developments in political communication, in particular the process of popularization of politics and the diffusion of Internet, are notably challenging the relationship between citizens and media. In this rapidly evolving context it is worth analysing the role of political discussion in personal networks and small groups. Also, very recent research has offered new evidence to the old thesis that, despite the massive presence of mass media, personal discussion shapes the formation of the political opinion. A particularly important aspect concerns the nature of opinion leadership: who are the new opinion leaders able to influence processes of interpersonal communication? This article reassesses such a theoretical framework by reviewing the state-of-the-art and providing a foundation for a debate on the themes of trust in information sources and the impact of opinion leaders.

Grenzen der Versorgungsforschung

Current limitations in health services research (HRS) in Germany are caused by issues of research funding, interest-driven commissioning, and restricted research conditions due to the structural and organizational context of the German health system. Methodological challenges arise in the validation and generalizability of routine data. There are substantial risks of bias in non-controlled interventional studies. In order to overcome these limitations and to improve the standing and quality of HRS in Germany, political opinion leaders and stakeholders need to be provided with continuous information on the need and potential of HRS. Methodological standards are needed for the evaluation of routine data, and principles of evidence-based medicine must be applied in all research addressing the effectiveness of health care interventions.

Political opinion leadership and advertisement attitude: The moderating roles of cognitive and affective responses to political messages

Political opinion leadership is a type of viewer involvement measure that may be relevant to predicting the viewer's attitude toward an advertisement with political content. This study was designed to investigate if cognitive and affective responses to political messages in fashion advertisements play any moderating roles in the relationship between political opinion leadership and advertisement attitude. The results suggest that effectiveness of political content in the advertisement for politically involved consumers may be determined by how clearly the message is communicated to the viewers. Discussions were also made as to the distinction between textual and pictorial messages and to how the viewer's recognition of a pictorial message can be a factor affecting the impact of political opinion leadership on attitude toward advertisement with political content.

Attitude towards fashion advertisements with political content: impacts of opinion leadership and perception of advertisement message

AbstractFashion advertisements with political content are unique in that they go against the accepted strategy of advertising. As fashion advertisements with political content become more prevalent, consumers’ reactions to them become an important subject of research. This study examines consumers’ attitudes towards fashion advertisements with political content with respect to fashion and political opinion leadership, political views, perception of advertisement message and product attitude. Results showed that attitude towards advertisements with political content was influenced significantly by the viewer's political views and agreement with the advertisement message, but not by political opinion leadership. Fashion opinion leadership influenced product attitude only for advertisements without political content. The viewers’ advertisement attitudes were carried over to product attitudes regardless of the presence of political message.

CONSTRAINED OPINION LEADER INFLUENCE IN AN ELECTORAL CAMPAIGN SEASON: REVISITING THE TWO-STEP FLOW THEORY WITH MULTI-AGENT SIMULATION

The conventional wisdom derived from the two-step flow theory suggests that opinion leaders have great influence on their followers. However, it has been difficult for social scientists to measure and describe the extent to which political opinion leaders influence voters, especially when voters today access multiple information sources like communication networks and self-selected news media. This paper fills this gap by using agent-based modeling to represent what the two-step flow theory describes about opinion leader influence and refines the theory based on the findings. First, opinion leader influence does not diffuse to the public without homogeneous communication networks. Second, opinion leader influence usually does not diffuse widely to the public because it inevitably faces resistance from self-strengthening communication networks.

Political Opinion Leadership and Electoral Behavior

SUMMARY A micro-model that focuses on political opinion leadership within an extended nomological network is developed and tested. Data were gathered from a sample of voters in an election. The results indicate that political opinion leadership played a central role in the voting behavior. Key antecedents to opinion leadership were voter involvement, subjective knowledge, and indirectly, information seeking behavior. Important consequences were voting stability, perceived risk and political satisfaction.

The Dual Roots of Opinion Leadership

Political scientists often focus on the link between personal attributes and the flow of political information. In this article, I argue that opinion leadership may not be as singularly rooted in the presence of a certain predisposition or set of personal characteristics as suggested in previous political opinion leadership studies. I develop two sets of hypotheses: the first derived from the perspective that opinion leadership is a function of a recipe of attributes and the second derived from the perspective that opinion leadership is tied to the characteristics of the social milieu in which the citizen is embedded. I test these hypotheses empirically using a data set constructed from two surveys of individuals in the New York metropolitan area. The results suggest that while opinion leaders possess attributes that distinguish them from nonleaders, they appear to gain influence through their informational advantages relative to others in the same environment.