Factors Affecting Opinion Leadership of Social Media Users in Creating Social Action

Meraji Oskouie, Sholeh; Soltanifar, Mohamad; Delavar, Ali

doi:10.22054/nms.2022.48867.885

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

¹ MA Student, Department of Communication Sciences and Knowledge Studies, Faculty of Literature, Humanities and Social Sciences, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

² Associate Professor, Department of Communication Sciences and Knowledge Studies, Faculty of Literature, Humanities and Social Sciences, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

³ Full professor, Department of Psychometrics, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Allameh Tabataba’i University

https://doi.org/10.22054/nms.2022.48867.885

Abstract

Social media have provided brand-new capacities for affecting users and leading them toward social action. The aim of the current research was to develop a model of factors affecting the opinion leadership of social media users in creating social action. To this end, a correlational design was adopted to describe the relationship between predictor variables of leader’s reputation and attractiveness, expertise, normativity, social status, similarity to users, official media, message characteristics, the users’ influenceability, and criterion variable of dissemination of calls for social action, and simultaneous social action on Instagram social media. A researcher-developed questionnaire whose validity and reliability were confirmed, was filled out by 393 participants. Cronbach’s Alpha for all sub-scales, except for one, was greater than.70. The present research findings showed that opinion leadership on social media did not directly affect the simultaneous social action of users, rather, its influence was mediated by opinion leader’s “reputation and attractiveness”, “users’ influenceability”, and “dissemination of calls for social action”. Also, “message characteristics” had the greatest effect on the opinion leadership. The findings can be employed by educational and scientific centers, and institutions responsible for content production and dissemination, to create simultaneous social action through opinion leadership.

Keywords

References

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New Media Studies

Factors Affecting Opinion Leadership of Social Media Users in Creating Social Action

References

References

Volume 8, Issue 32
January 2023
Pages 384-357

Factors Affecting Opinion Leadership of Social Media Users in Creating Social Action

References

References

Volume 8, Issue 32January 2023Pages 384-357

Volume 8, Issue 32
January 2023
Pages 384-357