OPINION LEADERSHIP CREDIBILITY
ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY
MCO 456 - POLITICAL COMMUNICATION
WEEK 11
Introduction:
Socio-cultural, economic and political diversity in Klari occurred after the
emergence of industrialization, the influence of mass media and the availability of
transportation access that makes it easier for people to travel migration. In complex
situations, the characteristics of the community and its environment also experience
dynamics in shifting attitudes and behaviors. The next impact is that the community's
view of opinion leaders has changed in determining their eligibility criteria as a
reference source. Assessment of individual characteristics, the content of the message
conveyed and the pattern of relationships between opinion leaders and people inside
and outside their group become a reference to assess the extent to which opinion
leaders have competence in the problems faced.
Change creates increasingly complex problems, when new groupings emerge in
the community that refer to aspects of individual or limited community interests.
However, barriers within the community do not reduce the tendency to interact and
communicate among villagers, although the quality of interaction may differ between
those in the same group and those outside the group. This is because communication
itself, as Reardon (1987:1) says, "is intended to entertain, influence, hospitalize, obtain
information, show attention and a number of other activities to make relationships".
Communication does not only take place to create relationships that are in line but in
differences can also be carried out communication if they have a common goal.
Groups that differ in socioeconomic status in the village can also participate in
intensive communication, when they have a common goal.
Interaction and communication between fellow villagers and opinion leaders
determine the size of the characteristics of a different opinion leader. Moreover, if
there is also clustering within the village community and opinion leaders, then
different results will be obtained in relation to the assessment of their "competence" as
community leaders.
Differences in the criteria for credibility of the role of opinion leaders, in fact, also
contain universal rural values as a form of collective agreement, such as socio-cultural
values, competence and honesty and a number of other universal values in the socio-
cultural context. Less related to the universality of shared culture is more rational
communication and openness, especially after industrialization has penetrated the
countryside.
People are becoming more rational and open, according to Rogers and
Shoemaker's (1971:211) criteria "more innovative people are those who have frequent
interpersonal communication with other members of the system, are in regular contact
with the mass media and seek information from many channels". The rationalization
inherent in industrialization is highly beneficial to communities that support
commercialization, but detrimental to village traditions full of taboos.
The credibility of the role of opinion leaders depends on the situation in which the
village develops, from agricultural villages to industrial development to the decline of
industrial activities in the countryside. Complex situations form pluralism in
community life. It is said by Durkheim (in Haneman, 1990: 20-21), as follows:
The density of interaction between community members (moral density) means
that the relationship between community members is getting closer, as well as the
relationship between groups, the number of interaction flows has increased. This
increases cooperation, action and reaction and the emergence of new ideas in
social life around an increased division of labor".
Moral density also results in the criteria for a number of opinion leader
characteristics that support or hinder and harm the credibility of the opinion leader's
role being more varied because they are also influenced by the many interactions and
communications in the changing village community environment.
1.
Characteristics that support Opinion Leader Role Credibility:
The traits that support the credibility of the role of opinion leaders have more to do
with the characteristics of individuals who are ideal in various situations, such as
common socio-cultural values and honesty. It all boils down to one demand for the
competence of opinion leaders to pay more attention to and solve problems faced by
villagers in a deliberative manner.
While the experience and education of the opinion leader, who is generally the
village elite, is an important requirement in an agricultural village situation, in other
situations of industrial development and the decline of factory operations, the issue of
education has become a major demand, so it does not need to be highlighted as a
requirement that supports the credibility of his role in the rural environment.
Opinion leaders also attract support from villagers by providing incentives to
villagers, or at the very least they function as mediators to deliver various rewards to
villagers to support the programs and activities of interest groups in the village. In the
face of poverty and deprivation, the provision of rewards becomes attractive,
regardless of the intentions, even though it is actually detrimental to the village
community in the long run.
Supporting the credibility of the role of opinion leaders in situations of industrial
development are the power relationships that are often relied upon to mobilize
villagers in support of interest groups. The strong relationship between opinion leaders
and the authorities resulted in greater authority for opinion leaders, and widespread
influence. This relationship also places opinion leaders as people who are able to
create programs and rules that bind villagers in community life.
Various provisions that emerge from opinion leaders represent the close
relationship with state power, such as the appointment of industrial waste handling to
groups close to elites in the government, or the appointment of positions in various
village institutions whose slogan is "deliberation" but is actually done half-heartedly,
because what often happens is that the emergence of figures who have been approved
by the government and are also supported by sub-ordinate opinion leaders.
Other programs that are formed as a result of collaboration between the authorities
and opinion leaders, always color village life, from socio-cultural issues to village
trade, will be oriented to strengthen the political influence of power and government
parties in a hegemonic situation without any balance.
When industrialization recedes in industrial villages, the universal characteristics that
support it remain, but other demands also develop in line with local and national
situations. In line with this assumption, Berger and Luckmann (1979:13) state that
"society and various social phenomena are a process, emerging, surviving or changing
based on the dialectical relationship between individuals and society". Society and
individuals shape the surrounding social conditions. Meanwhile, opinion leaders
should be able to diagnose changes well and provide solutions to various problems
experienced by villagers. This role will increase their credibility in the eyes of the
villagers.
Consistency in never going with the flow that supports strong groups and
democratization issues is a factor that supports opinion leaders to be more responsive
to the aspirations of villagers and no longer hesitate to make corrections to government
mistakes, while still maintaining village harmonization.
Relationships with non-governmental organizations and politicians in the village
provide support for the role of opinion leaders. Relationships with politicians at the
village, sub-district or district level involving members of the House of
Representatives are a new strength for opinion leaders. During the New Order era,
relationships with politicians would only be with bureaucrats who were generally also
government party cadres.
Party pluralism without the doctrine of the floating mass, causes opinion leaders to
also become people that parties fight over to influence rural audiences. If in the
industrial heyday period, a person who wanted to achieve a goal used to state that he
had the support of the government apparatus or the army, it changed to, "already
supported by the party and councilors".
2.
Characteristics that inhibit the credibility of the role of opinion leaders:
Characteristics that are very prominent as factors that reduce the credibility of
opinion leaders are the abandonment of socio-cultural values, familialism, non-
adaptive, and non-innovative traits that are always inherent in rural communities.
Demands for change cannot be met by opinion leaders quickly because opinion leaders
also have the same characteristics as the community, which tends to be slow. This
factor is negative in the community's assessment.
The abandonment of community values may not be radical, but when an opinion
leader starts to disregard village rituals, including worship in the management of
agricultural land, then that opinion leader will be categorized as one who has begun to
abandon local community values. In fact, there is no such thing as a total loss of
cultural values and this is also believed by Durkheim (in Giddens, 1986:89), who
states:
When primitive societies are replaced by modern abandoned forms, the basis of
morality and unity does not completely disappear; it must be recognized that this
type of social order retains a collective unity and a sense of identity with the
abandoned form.
There is no full disconnection from value but there are additions and shifts that result
in physical value social and cultural systems as if they had disappeared altogether. In a
more applicable sense Rogers (1985:161), states, "the combination of traditional and
modern systems forms a modern notion of a syncretism between old thinking and new
thinking". A balanced blend is the ideal in rural development.
The orientation towards the owners of capital and the rulers in the village is very
detrimental to opinion leaders, because this group is considered to have contributed to
the decline of rural areas as excellent agricultural producers. While opinion leaders
often mobilize the masses to support the interests of the rulers, this factor is also
disliked by the community. They follow the wishes of opinion leaders but mostly
based not on participatory awareness factors but out of fear.
It is well known that people who disagree with the village administration often
receive discriminatory treatment when dealing with the village office. This factor is
also institutionalized by opinion leaders as a form of loyalty to state power. In
situations of growing industrialization in the village, orientation towards interest
groups remains a bad value for opinion leaders, especially since their role is often
regulatory, controlling, and repressive, taking cover behind the bureaucratic structures
of the government and the army. Worse still, these traits are accompanied by the belief
that every action taken is right and in the interest of the village community, so they do
not want to be criticized.
In fact, in several cases that have occurred, the motto for the benefit of
development is identical to the interests of a group of people in the circle of power and
interest groups in the business conglomeration network in Indonesia. For example, in
the construction of factories, there has never been transparency of information on the
type of factory, the standard of waste disposed of whether it is in accordance with
environmental impact provisions, the extraction of groundwater which has the
potential to cause the surrounding land to dry up and various village problems due to
industrialization.
All the problems that arise seem to be ignored by the government and opinion
leaders. In fact, it is not unusual for them to protect and convey false news to their
communities. In order to reduce or anticipate the anger of the villagers, statements are
usually made by opinion leaders, apart from by jargon in the interests of development
will also refer to storied endorsements such as: "this factory belongs to a high-ranking
state official, to a general, to a conglomerate and to a number of other big names that
are commonly used as unchallengeable forces".
Another trait that tends to be negative in villagers' views is one manifestation of
prejudice, which is discussing other groups only in negative terms (antilocution).
During the heyday of industry, outgroup and ingroup predicates were very evident. It
all really boils down to the attitude of groups that are not in line with the government
in the choice of parties. It is no secret that those who do not want to join the
government party and its organs in the countryside will always be grouped into people
who need to be suspected because they are considered unable to cooperate and defy
the government.
A number of attributes that reduce the credibility of the role of opinion leaders in a
receding industrial situation reflect, on the one hand, the fundamental weaknesses of
rural communities, such as their lack of innovation, adaptability and dependence on
power. Other factors are more related to an unwillingness to take responsibility for
mistakes made in the past, when opinion leaders cooperated strongly with subordinate
institutions of state power and the owners of capital.
There are many similarities with the previous period, for example in terms of
political orientation, opinion leaders are more concerned about the interest groups they
support such as political parties. However, the excessive political orientation of
opinion leaders has led the community to maintain a free communication distance.
Moreover, the political map in industrial villages shows that a number of parties have
sufficient mass, so the community tends to have other opinion leaders who are
supported by different parties. This factor is a disadvantage for opinion leaders in the
village.
Interest groups always appear in the midst of village life and in the midst of the
people's economic downturn. The matter of support is identical to material
calculations, so there is a signal that when opinion leaders support a person, group,
village activity program, factory and others, people tend to associate it with economic
transactions. Materialistic tendencies, in Johnson's view who examines the relationship
between economic infrastructure and socio-cultural superstructure in Marx's economy,
states that the relationship between economic infrastructure and cultural superstructure
and the social structure built on that basis is a direct corollary of the position of
historical materialism. Man's adaptation to his material environment is always through
relationships so pervasive that all other social relationships and basic forms of
consciousness are shaped by economic relationships. (Doyle P. Johnson, 1986:120).
Industries that carry material symbols are more associated with commercial
transactions, so the village community easily adopts the materialism element. In a
broader context, every action has an economic meaning, including supporting or
criticizing the activities of various interest groups in the village.
The support of opinion leaders for the interests of the people often ends up in
economic calculations. For example: a protest against a factory for environmental
pollution will end in negotiations between the factory and opinion leaders that lead to
the provision of facilities to opinion leaders who claim to be able to resolve problems
with the villagers. This happened in Anggadita Village, when villagers protested
against a factory that had destroyed the village road. This picture makes the multi-
dimensional crisis situation that is full of jargon to defend the people and
democratization, limited to rhetoric.
As another illustration of the tendency to collaborate with interest groups, in
village head elections conducted in a village, competition between candidates involves
the support of political parties. In addition, each candidate for village head is also
supported by groups that have political networks up to the kabupaten level.
Meanwhile, the bupati, especially the sub-district head, is no longer in the position of
being the most dominant person to make a candidate elected in the competition to
become a village head.
Competition is increasingly complex, and there is no longer a single political
patron and power, as there was during the industrial heyday. No matter how fierce the
competition for the position of village head, which is of course supported by the
government apparatus at the kecamatan and kabupaten levels, it will all end if the most
powerful person at the kabupaten level approves who is most suitable to become the
village head. Associations with interest groups become a behavior that hampers the
credibility of opinion leaders.
On the other hand, the emergence of aggression and radicalism when solving
problems is also a negative factor. Opinion leaders who tend to have these
characteristics always argue that they no longer trust the solutions carried out by
government officials. In fact, democratization should be encouraged by the
government, as Durkheim (in Giddens, 1986: 127) states, "a society is more or less
democratic, as long as there is a two-way communication process between the state
and other levels of society".
In one case in one village, the village head was deemed to have deviated in his
administration, for example, he was accused of using public money, deducting money
for the acquisition of land purchased by a factory and a number of other problems. The
community repeatedly reported this incident at the village level to the Village
Consultative Council, and up to the kabupaten, but because it received no significant
attention, the community, together with opinion leaders, took matters into their own
hands by mobilizing and forcing the village council to dismiss the village head. The
action was successful, but it left some who were used to the rhetoric of security and
stability dissatisfied.
Another negative assessment of opinion leaders is that they are mechanistic,
dependent on others and lack confidence in their own strength. Societies in which the
primary bond to unity is based on mechanical solidarity, which has a clustered or tribal
structure, consist of politically aligned kin-family groups (clans), which are very
similar to each other in terms of internal organization. (Emile Durkheim in Giddens,
1986:94).
Mechanistic patterns in society tend to make opinion leaders act clichéd, by
imitating other opinion leaders, so that anticipation of dealing with developing rural
problems is slow. All wait for each other to act between the community and opinion
leaders in the countryside. A situation justified by Rogers and Shoemaker (1971: 131),
"in a traditional social system, members of the system find it difficult to perform
actions that have not previously occurred".
INFORMATION SOURCES AND COMMUNICATION PATTERNS
1.
Tendency to Seek Information Sources that are Trusted:
Villagers seek information in a variety of changing situations, regardless of
whether opinion leaders support industrialization or reject industrialization in their
village. The discussion focuses on the credibility of the role of opinion leaders as a
source of information, which is not always a reference for villagers. This is because in
line with changing situations, people have other sources of information such as the
mass media and other sources that are more trusted.
As in the research findings, villagers seek information from trusted sources. Trust
in the source of information is not fixed but changes according to the type of
information and the evolving village situation. The types of information sought by
villagers include socio-cultural information, village economy and rural politics.
Meanwhile, the terminology of village changes includes the situation of agricultural
villages, the development of industry and the situation of the receding industry.
In terms of the type of information sought by the community and the development
of the village, the community had different choices of information sources in the
period from 1989 when factories began to appear in the village until the end of the
New Order government in 1997.
People's choice to find a trusted source of information can be due to competence
credibility, which is credibility gained because they are considered experts in their
fields or safety credibility owned by opinion leaders because they have no intention of
manipulating others or drawing personal benefits from what they say or what they
advocate. Communication patterns that are considered ideal for their audiences.
According to Cragan and Wright (1980:73), "communication that can positively
influence the group to move towards group goals to be achieved together is an ideal
form of leadership".
In this context, what makes opinion leaders a source of information is their
honesty (trustworthiness) as well as the ideals attached to individual characteristics.
The cosmic bond between opinion leaders, the community and the land must be
maintained and remain as a valuable factor of production for the villagers.
The table also shows that the community positions the mass media as a source of
information that does not broadcast entertainment alone but also socio-economic and
political news of interest to the community, the mass media plays a role in informing
the public about the facts of social, economic and political life that occur around or
outside their community. The mass media after the New Order government interpreted
various facts in transparent writing or broadcasting so that the Klari community placed
it as one of the trusted news sources.
Linking the role of newspapers in power change, McQuail (1987: 11), argues that,
The involvement of newspapers in political movements during the national crisis
reflected different aspects of their role and function: on the one hand as a means of
advertisement and entertainment, on the other hand broadcasting the political
movements that occurred. Newspapers are stimuli that support the dynamics of
development in different historical periods.
Mass media has a role in the political changes that occur in Indonesia, although
entertainment and business elements are still carried out. With its intensity in politics
and openness in reporting, the mass media is one of the sources that should be used as
a reference when there is political change and change of power at the national level.
In addition, other reliable sources of information can be temporary figures in the
community, cosmopolitan people who are used to dealing with people from outside
their group, educated young people, members of various non-governmental
organizations or the alternative media of the internet, which are received by villagers
through two-stage communication. According to Bovee and Thill (1997: 69), the
internet is a network of a group of computers that are interconnected so that all can
share information, the network can be located in one particular place, or the world's
largest network of many computers that are electronically interconnected.
The internet during the New Order era was one of the alternative sources of
information favored by a limited intellectual community, but they would then
disseminate various information from the internet through many stages until it reached
the villagers.
From these various sources, the community in an agricultural village situation
positions opinion leaders as the dominant reference, except when villagers seek
information about industry and trade. The community has another source of
information, namely people who are experts in industrial issues, both from the
negative and positive aspects. Industrialization does not always have negative aspects,
but even a small amount of it can have positive aspects for the villagers.
For trade information, the community relies on other sources, such as people who
often migrate back and forth and people who are close to wholesalers, grain collectors
and even moneylenders. The community realizes that opinion leaders do not have a
genuine trading base outside of the agricultural sector, so they will compare the
information received from opinion leaders with information obtained from people
competent in the trade.
In situations of industrial development, opinion leaders are the dominant reference
for the community in social matters because opinion leaders are considered to have
traditional and charismatic power and the like. Meanwhile, in political matters, the
dominance of opinion leaders as a source of messages is due to the sensitivity of
political issues in the village so that people seek more information about politics from
opinion leaders or they do not dare to reject the will of opinion leaders as an extension
of the government and political power.
The situation of industrial development that brings rational and materialistic
values makes villagers seek information about industrialization in the village not only
from opinion leaders, but also from the mass media and other sources of information.
The mass media provides an understanding of the various problems faced by rural
communities. Meanwhile, information from other sources is of great interest to those
engaged in the village trade sector. The information obtained can be used to improve
the quality of goods produced and to homogenize the prices of goods and services in
the village.
On agricultural information, the community ignores mass media news, as traditional
agriculture is still the domain of expertise of village opinion leaders. There is no mass
media that specifically provides space to address the problems of rural communities
and agriculture.
Even if there is space in the mass media for village communities, it is usually very
limited and does not directly address the problems faced by the community. If there is
a transfer of messages from the mass media, it is usually very dependent on the
explanations of opinion leaders or other sources that can explain well in accordance
with the circumstances of the community and its environment. In relation to the
influence of mass media, James P. Winter (1984:564) states, The influence of mass
media on society, although recognized as very strong, does not have the same effect on
every individual or group in society due to differences in cognition and social reality
environment.
In the sense that, each community has differences in the level of knowledge,
experience and environment, so that the news spread by the mass media has a non-
uniform impact, especially the village community with all its limitations, it is not easy
to capture messages from the mass media.
In contrast to trade and industrial matters where the level of adoption of mass
media is high, for agricultural issues, farmers lack the instinct to transfer knowledge
directly from unknown sources. Thus, despite intense media exposure, regardless of
the truth of the news conveyed, it turns out that the public does not give place to the
mass media as a source of sought-after messages.
The multi-dimensional crisis situation followed by the decline of factory activities
in Klari, caused various joints of life that were originally controlled by the government
through a jungle of regulations to fade and move freely. Only social issues are still
highly dependent on information, advice and counsel from opinion leaders. Even then,
in talks with certain topics such as religious social relations and rituals in agricultural
land management, it is still believed that the holder of the information is a trusted
opinion leader so that other sources are not considered.
The factor that still binds between opinion leaders and their communities due to
certain ties that are still relied upon in kinship relationships in the village, in the view
of Mac. Iver, R.M. and Charles H. Page (1967:9) as Community sentiment is the
feeling of mutual need among members of the community, and the belief that the land
they live on gives life to all its members. The elements of community sentiment are:
like-mindedness, comradeship and mutual need.
Beyond social issues, cultural, economic and political information in rural areas
tends to utilize various sources that are easily found and accessed by villagers. In
essence, villagers will seek conventional sources of information from trusted opinion
leaders, mass media as a comparison, and from other sources, namely individuals and
other groups that have great influence in the community. This effort is a form of
distrust of the system that is institutionalized in the control of state power.
2.
Communication Patterns between Opinion Leaders and the Community :
An examination of the communication patterns between villagers and opinion
leaders in situations of village change illustrates the complex consequences. The
research findings show that opinion leaders do not have the same attitude towards the
emergence of industry in the village, they are divided into groups that have a tendency
to reject the entry of industrialization and groups that support industrialization in the
village.
Opinion leaders who oppose industry in the village have reasons that maintain the
socioeconomic value of agriculture in the village. The cosmic bond between the
community and its land must be maintained and still be used as a very meaningful
production factor for villagers. On the other hand, community groups that support
industry are oriented towards the government's development program. Industry is
analogized as a symbol that brings prosperity. The two groups have different
communication patterns in the situation of agricultural villages, when industry
develops in the countryside and when industrialization in industrial location villages
begins to recede.
Each situation produces a different communication pattern, even if it is the same
in a linear or interactive form, but each communication pattern carried out by opinion
leaders with the community as their audience, is actually equipped with certain
characteristics that indicate their position in the group and the style of communication
carried out.
In general, based on the table, the communication patterns of opinion leaders who
reject industrialization with rural communities, in the situation of agricultural villages,
are more colored by linear communication patterns that rely on traditional authority
recognized in a limited community, namely in the local community. Rural
communities tend to behave following the habits that have been carried out for
generations as guidelines in their groups. According to Mills (1968: 44), small groups
have a major influence on society and also on individual behavior in everyday life.
Small groups are a special form within the framework of the social system as a whole
and are a miniature society that has a division of labor, a code of government, prestige,
ideology and so on.
In a rural environment that teaches submission to traditional authority, community
members will also follow this norm as long as the surrounding environment allows
them to submit to traditional rules. In the situation of industrial development, when
rationalism and materialism appear in the symbols of modernization, the
communication patterns between opinion leaders and their audiences tend to be
interactive based on equality and transactional to share information. Meanwhile, in the
situation of industrial decline, the communication pattern between opinion leaders and
their audiences is dominated by interactive models with various certain characteristics
owned by opinion leaders and their audiences.
Only authority in the social sphere that refers to the social and religious aspects of
opinion leaders can exercise one-way communication. This is understandable that
socio-religious factors are one of the strengths of opinion leaders who continue to
survive and gain public trust. In the context of the role of opinion leaders with a
religious base in industrial areas, the results of research by Rosi and Rosi (1961) in
industrial areas of Massachusetts show:
The prominence of reference groups in industrialized societies is seen when they
prefer religious leaders as potential and actual references for individuals who need
advice in making personal decisions. (Rosi and Rosi in Krech, Crutchfield and
Ballachey, 1962: 200).
Religious authority does not fade easily in situations of industrialization, although the
quality of physical worship may be reduced. Opinion leaders with religious authority
are still referred to for information related to religious norms. Religion on the one hand
and the economic laws of industrialization work well together in the village. In this
context, Weber combines religious factors with rational economic action. The
influence of religious ethics on economic organization should be considered above all
else. Furthermore, it is argued, religious belief is one of a series of various influences
that may prepare the formation of an economic ethic, and religion itself is greatly
affected by social, political and economic phenomena. (Max Weber in Anthony
Giddens, 1986:208).
In the situation of agricultural villages as well as industrial development, the
communication pattern between opinion leaders who support village industrialization
and village communities is one-way. This is understandable given that opinion leaders
in this group are generally supported by state power, which uses the same
communication model.
The one-way communication that took place during the New Order era turned into
an interactive one with various characteristics associated with it after the advent of
political reform. In that situation, communication with equality emerged with the
principle of freedom of information. In line with these conditions, according to Lerner
(1983), that "different public opinions on an opinion are a sign of modernization" At
least modernization in improving communication patterns that have been going on
with autocratic patterns into democratic ones.
POLITICAL COMMUNICATION OF OPINION LEADERS
1.
Key Characteristics of Opinion Leaders who Resist Industrialization Based on
the research findings, there are a number of specific characteristics that support or
reduce the credibility of the role of opinion leaders in their audiences. Among these
characteristics, people have a tendency to assign one of the prominent characteristics
of opinion leaders as a factor that supports and hinders the credibility of their role.
A number of characteristics as shown in the table above are actually not separate
from one another, because the characteristics that support are of course in it, there are
various characters that interact. Likewise, negative traits that reduce credibility
accumulate various traits, behaviors and other interests.
1.1.
Social and Cultural Issues
Opinion leaders who oppose industrialization in the village, in dealing with social
problems, generally rely on common values with the community as their audience in
various village situations. But an inhibiting factor is the authoritarian nature of the
agricultural period.
One-way communication was common in traditional societies, but when times
changed, communication patterns that were full of direction and guidance were
considered authoritarian, so leaders He did not feel that his actions had any adverse
impact on society, as he was carrying out the routines of traditional authority, and even
felt that he was defending traditional customs, rules and procedures.
Similarities in socio-cultural values form perceptual similarities that can glue
relationships, stated by Samovar and Porter (1988: 37), "socio-cultural elements that
affect a person's perception are belief systems, values and attitudes, besides that there
is a worldview and social organization". If these elements are fulfilled in the
interaction, communication will run well between the village community and opinion
leaders.
Meanwhile Krech, Crutchfield and Ballachey (1977: 180), state as follows:
The uniformity of individual attitudes in primary groups can be done by forcing
adjustments so as to cause uniformity among group members, the tendency of
individuals to choose the same attitude, seek information from the same sub-
culture and form collective attitudes within the unity of the social system.
Thus, shared socio-cultural values have great potential for village opinion leaders to
influence rural communities collectively.
In the situation of industrial development, opinion leaders have the characteristic
of being prejudiced against groups outside their community. According to Samovar,
Porter and Jain (1981:123), "prejudice is a rigid attitude based on a belief system and
erroneous preconceptions". This trait, which is inherent in many traditional
communities, reduces public support for the credibility of opinion leaders and is a
major factor in public dislike.
The nature of prejudice will result in other unfavorable behavior, especially if it is
transmitted to its audience. According to the opinion of Samovar, Porter and Jain
(1981: 124), The manifestations of prejudice are: (1) Antilocution, which is discussing
other groups in negative terms, (2) Avoidance as an effort to avoid other groups that
are not liked, (3) Discrimination, which is the exclusion of certain groups that are
considered unfit for communication, (4) Violence or physical attacks after emotions
rise, (5) Extermination as an effort to exterminate one by one or carried out en masse.
Prejudice is learned from personal experience with one person or group and mass
media. Or prejudice is formed by various dominant sources in society.
When industrialization receded in the village, and major changes occurred in
various sectors of life, opinion leaders were able to adjust to the demands of freedom
in the village, but apparently they were not able to adjust quickly, even though the
community wanted to make changes together.
In dealing with cultural issues in the village, the main strength of opinion leaders
is their tolerance towards migrants and other groups with cultural differences. This
positive factor changed when pluralism emerged in the village, with opinion leaders
open to the simplification of costly rituals and receptive to information about culture
from outside their community. This openness was maintained until the economic crisis
hit the factory.
A major limiting characteristic of the agrarian period is ethnocentrism, which
considers village traditions to be the best. In the subsequent development of the
situation, opinion leaders were unable to adjust to rapidly changing circumstances that
shifted their cultural values. The inertia to keep up with changes is because opinion
leaders feel that their traditional authority is coming to an end, so they are hesitant to
change radically. This factor reduces people's trust in village opinion leaders.
1.2.
Economic Issues Village
A trait that supports opinion leaders' leadership on agricultural issues in various
situations is their competence. Expertise in agriculture has not been diluted by the
development of the village. On the other hand, traits that show inertia, unimaginative
and unadaptive are original characteristics of traditional farming communities.
In many situations, industry is new and not favored by opinion leaders. As Rogers
and Shoemaker (1971:54) put it, social norms that have been in place in society for
generations have a very strong influence on individuals and groups that are still
traditional, so that almost no decisions are made individually, all decisions are
collective.
Opinion leaders in this group find it difficult to adapt or accept new ideas in
changes to the socio-economic system in the village, until the time of reduced
industrialization activities, some of them are neither among the late majority in
accepting innovations nor as laggards in the context of industrialization in rural areas.
In their position to defend agricultural villages, opinion leaders seek to defend the
interests of villagers when dealing with factory agents who are exerting their influence
in the villages. Because they only rely on solidarity with agricultural interests, opinion
leaders are not familiar with the ins and outs of industrialization, so that when factory
activities develop rapidly, the equal nature of communication is emphasized to
maintain ties with their audiences and this egalitarian nature is maintained by the
willingness to share information in interactive and transactional communication. Thus
the traditional authority that grants authority is also fading.
A set of traits that are supportive in communicating industrialization issues are not
balanced by factors that reduce their credibility, such as laziness and not being able to
adapt to change. These traits tend to be detrimental to opinion leaders, as they connote
sluggishness, laziness, and a lack of time.
Compromise, on the other hand, is considered detrimental to the role of opinion
leaders, as they are considered unable to defend their arguments to sanction those who
deviated during the industrial heyday. Compromise in this context has a bad substance,
because it is unable to act decisively against deviations that have occurred or are
ongoing in the village. This factor undermines the credibility of opinion leaders in
their audiences.
To illustrate the compromises made by opinion leaders, in 2001, one of the
factories in Gintung Kerta made artesian wells at several points that were not reported
to the local government. As a result, the surrounding land became dry and soil fertility
was reduced. Residents held the factory accountable by staging anarchic
demonstrations. Opinion leaders, who were relied upon to impose harsh sanctions,
were trapped in an indecisive compromise.
In matters of commerce, opinion leaders when interacting and communicating
with their audiences exhibit the trait of expansiveness relationships, experiences and
information sharing in an egalitarian status, but the characteristics of traditional
societies hamper credibility, such as inertia and laziness, lack of innovation and the
instinct to act the same as others without any effort to adopt new things.
Innovation in the context of its application in rural areas does not mean new at all,
as Rogers and Shoemaker (1971: 247) argue, An innovative idea does not mean that it
is completely new, but that it has been previously known but someone has not been
willing to adopt it or develop a like or dislike attitude towards the idea, action or item
that is considered new. So many ideas, actions and things that are considered new have
swept the countryside since it was still a good rice producer in the region. In the
agricultural era, agricultural extension workers spread many innovations in the field of
paddy rice management, especially after the emergence of factories, innovations in
various forms were often parked in villages by development agents. Industrially
located villages, as strategic and surplus areas in agriculture, are often used as objects
of various agricultural experiments and village-level social, political and economic
engineering.
1.3.
Rural Political Issues :
Opinion leaders in the context of local power generally rely on their position as
village elites with strong traditional authority and considerable experience. However,
inhibiting factors such as autocratic and bureaucratic characteristics that favor systems
and structures in government are also dominant. People tend to dislike formalities in
their daily lives.
When people demanded openness and freedom of speech, opinion leaders also
displayed democratic traits that helped free villagers to express their aspirations. On
the other hand, opinion leaders also exercise their freedom by joining political parties.
Public involvement in politics is one of the characteristics of modern societies,
stated by Smelser (1964:268):
Modern societies are those that have participation in politics, at least in the form of
representation, helping to formulate and have alternative national policies. Political
participation will position people as having the power to participate in decision-
making.
People should participate in policy-making activities, so that their aspirations are
accommodated by the government. However, political participation in the villages was
difficult, as the floating mass concept was enforced by the government during
President Soeharto's time in power.
In political affairs, experience is a positive factor for opinion leaders when it
comes to elections, but traditional power-oriented constraints and formal aspects of
political life are negative factors that hamper credibility.
In the era of political freedom, although opinion leaders are democratic, their
strong ties to political parties often mean that communication with their audiences is
no longer free. Disappointment often arises when opinion leaders are more
preoccupied with the propaganda and campaign affairs of political parties that tend to
forget their audiences.
2.
Key Characteristics of Opinion Leaders who Support Industrialization
Opinion leaders who support industrialization in villages generally have good
relationships with the government and capital owners. Given this position, opinion
leaders also act as agents of reform. In his position as a community leader, he must
also deal with the social system that is also his community. However, it is not easy to
carry out reforms in a traditional agricultural village environment, as Rogers and
Shoemaker (1971:131) remind us, That is:
Traditional social systems are characterized by: less oriented towards change,
simple technology, interpersonal relationships are still very effective, making it
easier for people to maintain the status quo in their social system, very little
communication with people from outside their group and difficult to place
themselves in other systems outside their own system.
These characteristics make it difficult for reform agents to make changes, especially if
the changes are associated with development which is never value-free. As stated by
Berger (1982: 31),:
Development is the overall improvement in the well-being of a population
achieved by modernization. Modernization is the institutional and cultural changes that
accompany growth as value-free, whereas development would be categorized as
highly political and not value-free.
The Klari community sees development as something that cannot be resisted, in
which it means pressure to sell agricultural land for the benefit of people outside the
village and industry, such as the Jakarta-Cikampek toll road, automatic telephone lines
and various other facilities.
The main characteristics of opinion leaders found in various village situations are
not absolute. Other characters that are beneficial or detrimental in their interaction and
communication still have a contribution in placing opinion leaders as trusted or less
trusted figures. In essence, the main characteristics of opinion leaders are trends that
can be seen by the Klari community as their audience.
2.1.
Social and Cultural Issues :
The main characteristic that supported the credibility of the role of opinion leaders
in the farming village situation was the similarity of cultural values, but at the same
time when the new factory was built, opinion leaders acted autocratically with
unchallengeable and oppressive communication patterns to their audiences. In relation
to autocratic actions, Krech et. al, (1962: 198), states:
The influence of cultural pressure and coercion can cause resistance to the primary
group, authoritarian attitudes that are highlighted in various actions in the family,
community and organizational environment have the potential to cause resistance.
As opinion leaders gain power, this factor is perceived positively by their
audiences. However, this positive value is not enough to cover a character that ignores
socio-cultural values in the countryside. Thus, this character trait is considered to
severely hamper the credibility of opinion leaders. In situations of economic crisis,
opinion leaders try to emphasize common values, but the denial of local values also
creates problems for their audiences.
As with social issues, when talking about culture, opinion leaders point to the
similarity of cultural values in farming village situations as a positive factor, and
behavior that brings a materialistic culture is seen by the community as a negative
factor. Meanwhile, in the situation of industrial development, although opinion leaders
easily adapt to the symbols of modernization, there are factors that reduce credibility,
namely controlling behavior and controlling in communication is an action that is
disliked by the community.
The behavior controls the audience, because opinion leaders feel supported by
local authorities and village institutions and other dominant forces. The nature of
control is to mimic the behavior of the government which They feel entitled to control
all aspects of village life. This symptom was feared by Durkheim who stated: In a
modern society, where the stifling influence of tradition has been largely eliminated,
there are many avenues for critical thinking and change of opinion within society. If
the government further regulates these tendencies in such a way, the result will be
constant uncertainty in the political environment and indecision leading to
inconclusive change. (Emile Durkheim in Anthony Giddens, 1986:127).
Efforts towards modernization with its industrialization marginalized local traditions,
but by over-regulating and not focusing on the problems faced by village communities,
but rather focusing on industrial protection, it resulted in an atmosphere of uncertainty
in the village that proved to be the cause of various internal conflicts.
In a situation of freedom to determine cultural orientation, opinion leaders tend to
be understanding and introspective about their role, but on the other hand, negative
characteristics also emerge, namely inhibiting change. This is because unplanned
changes are considered unfavorable for opinion leaders and their support groups. In
fact, in the tradition of the New Order government's power, they really enjoyed it.
2.2.
Economic Issues Village:
Competence in agriculture and innovation are positive characteristics of opinion
leaders. But when competence is confronted with authoritarian behavior in agriculture,
people can still accept it. But in the setting of growing industrialization in villages, the
positive trait of being innovative has to be weighed against the controlling
characteristics that people dislike.
In a situation of reduced factory activity, opinion leaders who pride themselves on
being supported by the government are also aware that previous village policies have
not always been in favor of the people, but when asked to take responsibility, opinion
leaders tend to shy away from past responsibilities, arguing that these actions have
previously been approved in deliberations. On the other hand, the community also
recognizes that the village deliberations It is more about legalizing village government
policies that have been programmed and regulated through bureaucratic channels.
For the industrialization of the village, opinion leaders gave certain rewards to the
village community with the aim that the community would accept the presence of the
factory. Providing rewards is one aspect as a source of authority and power of a leader.
According to French and Raven (1968), that:
The sources of authority and power of leaders are (1) coercive power, power based
on fearful coercion, (2). Reward power, which is the power to obtain compliance
by giving rewards to others, (3) Legal Power as formal power granted by the
organization (4) Expert Power, influence based on skills, expertise or knowledge,
(5). Referent power, power that is based on his example. (French and Raven, in
Myers and Myers, 1988: 198).
The actions of opinion leaders who are oriented towards reward power are temporary
to gain public sympathy, because on the other hand, this behavior is accompanied by
manipulating messages or deliberately delivering messages whose truth content is
doubtful. As Kincaid and Schramm (1990:24) emphasize, "human communication is
intended to reduce uncertainty and reduce doubt". When opinion leaders convey
information that is not transparent, they usually argue that they are not objective in
conveying the information because they want to avoid turmoil in the community and
the message is entrusted by the government.
As industry advocates, opinion leaders are certainly more innovative than other
people, so adverse characteristics such as non-transparent messages are ignored by the
community. In this context, opinion leaders act as agents of change who assist
government programs in village development. The ideal characteristics for a change
agent are as follows:
Generating the need for change, establishing relationships in order to change,
diagnosing the needs faced by the community, creating a desire for change among its
clients, planning the action of change, maintaining the development program so that it
does not become obsolete congestion and maintaining good relationships with clients
who have changed. (Rogers and Shoemaker, 1971: 315-316).
If village opinion leaders have such perfect capacity, they may not be able to make
changes that run smoothly and are accepted by the community, which experiences ups
and downs along the way.
Changes towards modernization with industrialization in developing countries do
not immediately create prosperity and lead to better conditions for local communities.
It can also create new and complex problems.
Although conducted in the Middle East, Daniel Lerner's research has the same
substance for examining change in developing countries. It is stated as follows:
People are hurrying with the pace of the West's complicated history of
development, what has been realized in the West over centuries, some Middle
Eastern leaders want to achieve in just a few years. After all, they want to do it
their way... what they need are modern institutions but not modern ideology,
modern power but not modern goals, modern wealth but not modern wisdom,
modern goods but not modern styles. (Daniel Lerner, 1983:31)
Industrialization in rural areas as a form of achieving prosperity and modernization, in
national economic calculations may contribute foreign exchange, but at the community
level it creates new problems that are prone to horizontal and vertical conflict.
In the context of village trade, extensive connections during the agricultural
village period are recognized as good traits of opinion leaders, and being innovative in
new ways such as anticipating changes in consumers in the village are characteristics
that demonstrate their role.
The emergence of new businesses in the village with the support of opinion
leaders, leading to clear task specialization, for example in the work of Village Unit
Cooperatives, small industries, cooperatives and village credit institutions shows a
shift from a mechanistic agricultural society to an organic pre-industrial society. About
mechanistic society, Durkheim states the following:
In contemporary societies, mechanical forms of solidarity are increasingly being
replaced by a new type of social cohesion: the organic community which leads to
utilitarianism, oriented towards individual contracts that are very heterogeneous and
tend to reduce the collective conscience of traditional societies. (Emile Durkheim in
Anthony Giddens, 1986:99).
Collective consciousness in the traditional farming model is not evident in the
highly commercialized trading patterns in the countryside, nor does the Village Unit
Cooperative in the village reflect integration and communication in the collective
consciousness. Everything is very calculative and tends to benefit the village elite
economically.
Another hindering factor is that opinion leaders are too materialistic and not
transparent in disseminating trade information in the village. However, because the
situation at that time placed opinion leaders as an extension of the government, the
materialistic and non-transparent nature did not have a wide impact on the credibility
of opinion leaders. According to Rogers and Svenning (1969:217), "opinion leaders or
traditional community leaders usually also serve as government agents who assist in
village development programs". Thus, characters that are perceived negatively by the
community, but are not an obstacle to their credibility.
There are so many problems caused by industrialization in the village, such as the
leakage of chemical storage pipes in one of the factories, the noise of the factory that
caused protests from villagers, and other incidents that caused conflicts between
villagers, government, factories and opinion leaders. Not to mention internal factory
disturbances that disrupt the harmony of life in the village. Various cases tend to put
the supporting leaders of industrialization on the side of the factory, even if they try to
resolve, they usually end up with certain agreements that are less related to rural social
problems.
Opinion leaders seem to work in an organizational system with government
coordination based on the rigidity of the bureaucratic structure. Whereas on the one
hand the community expects to be based on collectivity to solve the problems faced. In
line with this description Likert (1961), states, in authoritative organizations,
downward messages are received with suspicion, causing misunderstanding and
rejection. Whereas in participatory organizations and groups, downward or all-way
communication is more acceptable to its members. (Likert in Rogers and Shoemaker,
1971: 127).
Problem solving that always refers to the formal aspects of the organizational
structure is difficult to satisfy villagers. It is even more disappointing if the problem is
handled by the community itself from the beginning, but when it is nearing
completion, opinion leaders and the government with their power try to resolve it.
In the turbulent dynamics of the village, the existence of opinion leaders faded
during the multi-dimensional crisis. Various issues that were previously unquestioned
by the village community were brought up again, including the policy of supporting
the inclusion of retailers in the retail business conglomeration network in the village,
at least the opinion leaders played a role in it. Although opinion leaders are sometimes
aware of their inconsistency with the harmony of the village economy, they tend to
take no responsibility for the difficulties faced by small shopkeepers around industrial
villages and take cover behind formal regulations.
2.3.
Political Issues Rural:
As supporters of government programs, opinion leaders always participate in the
decision-making process in the village. Their constant participation places opinion
leaders as people with high credibility, even though the dissemination of information
is often not carried out objectively because it depends on the government's message,
which is packaged in the frame of maintaining village harmonization.
Their activism makes village government programs more favorable than the
coercive actions of villagers in the name of development. As a person who can interact
in government, when changes and demands for freedom occur, opinion leaders try to
adapt to the situation that develops, he responds to all the demands of the villagers, but
in practice opinion leaders often take destructive actions, or "active or passive actions
that damage the basis of organizations and groups" (Robbins, 1986: 85). This behavior
does not build togetherness within the village community, but rather neglects
obligations that should be more feasible. Their increasingly marginalized position
means that opinion leaders are less active and tend to stay away from village
government activities.
Experience in dealing with elections, based on community opinion, is a factor that
supports the role of leaders. Opinion leaders, although they act autocratically in
delivering messages whose contents are all mandatory, but as it is known that politics
is the domination of the government and other supporting organs of power. Therefore,
opinion leaders as one of the organs of power, even though they act autocratically, the
villagers do not dare to reject the messages conveyed. The community actually realizes
that obligations are attached to rights, but the hegemonic politics of state power cannot
be resisted.
Elections and the role of political parties in villages have not been evident since
the 1971 general elections in Indonesia, as politics is a sensitive issue, which villagers
are considered unfit to participate in. Thus, the lowest level of political participation,
such as participating in elections, was merely to fulfill obligations imposed by the
village government. Relevant to the situation, Liddle states,:that the 1971 elections in
Indonesia were anti-party motivated, parties and their leaders were thorns in the flesh,
rivals for power, sources of other worldviews and generators of popular unrest.
(William Liddle in Kartodirdjo, 1990:129). Since 1971, the first general election under
Soeharto, politics has been connoted as dangerous for people's lives. This has
implications for the role of bureaucrats who are more dominant as political controllers
in the village. When referring to the context of morality, as stated by Durkheim (in
Abdullah and Leeden, 1986: 98), power always considers that an act against it is a
crime, even though the act against it is actually not a violation of the general
conscience or not a violation of human moral values ". (Emile Durkheim in Abdullah
and Leeden, 1986:98)
Resistance is an antagonistic behavior that is frowned upon by the government,
and the strong dominance of state power in regulating and controlling its society
makes all institutions, groups and individuals affiliated with it, even stronger.
Therefore, even though opinion leaders do not like to be criticized, as long as they are
still an extension of the bureaucracy of state power, they still have a strong position in
their society.
As in the case of dealing with political issues from the village government,
opinion leaders who are following the tide of change, attempt to However, this did not
eliminate their position as people who mostly supported the hegemonic power of the
Working Group, so the community viewed the credibility of the role of opinion leaders
as insufficient to be used as a reference. Community attitudes that reject the existence
of past power have resulted in opinion leaders withdrawing from various opportunities
for public communication in the village.
In the context of communication with socially and culturally different groups,
actions that avoid communicating are included in one of the criteria for inhibiting
effective communication. Presented by Samovar, Porter and Jain (1981: 192-200), it
basically states as follows:
Problems that hinder communication are (1). differences in communication goals,
(2). ethnocentrism, (3), distrust (lack of trust) towards other people or groups, (4)
withdrawal (withdrawal) to communicate with other parties, (5) absence of
empathy, (6) stereotypes (stereotypes), (7) power that causes communication to
run unbalanced.
The decision to withdraw from communicating with its audience, because people
experience a crisis of confidence in government leaders with their institutions and
opinion leaders supporting government programs, so what is conveyed is always
criticized by the public.
Rural communication in political life no longer displays repressive elements with top-
down patterns, people speak as they are, openly and less and less communication is
influenced by power distance, even often, communication between the community and
the authorities and factory people is interspersed with destructive threats to use the
masses to solve problems. These actions tend to be taken because of a lack of trust in
opinion leaders and the government.
3.
Changes in Credibility of the Role of Leaders Opinions:
The credibility of opinion leaders is highly dependent on individual
characteristics, capacity to master the issue, the content of the message conveyed, the
relationship with the dominant interest group, the role of alternative sources of
information that have emerged in the era of freedom to obtain information. The factor
is always shifting to get closer to credibility or in different situations it will move away
from the credibility measure.
Opinion leaders who are seen as trustworthy and competent sources of information
or channels of communication by the village community are not constant in various
situations. As stated by Timasheff (1967:117), "the drive for power and the
compliance of followers in various situations determine the position of the leader in a
group". Changes in community perceptions due to the influence of village dynamics
mean that opinion leaders are also required to adjust their roles while remaining
guided by local values.
This ideal demand is not easily carried out by opinion leaders, what happens is
that the attitude and behavior of opinion leaders in one group refuses to accept changes
while still being based on local values, while other groups of opinion leaders tend to
support changes but ignore local values.
Opinion leaders who are grounded in village traditions and unwilling to adapt to
the changes brought about by industrialization, are not always the same in line with the
village community, because the surrounding socio-economic reality demands
adjustments to the symbols of modernization. But on the other hand, those who adapt
to change tend to ignore local community values.
Given the difficulty of finding ideal opinion leaders in many situations, villagers
make choices about ideal opinion leaders based on the type of information or issue
being communicated and the extent to which the information is favorable.
In the environment of opinion leaders who reject rural industrialization, the
credibility of the role in the situation of agricultural villages is limited to social,
cultural and agricultural issues, while other issues, opinion leaders are considered to
have no credibility, because these issues are generally under the intensive control of
the government such as political issues, or issues that do not have much contact with
rural traditions, namely industry and trade.
The development of industry has had a negative impact on the role of traditional
opinion leaders, as they are seen as not having a credible role in village issues. The
spirit of change in the village marginalizes their position within the community.
Problems that commonly arise in industrialization according to Tjokrowinoto are: " (1)
Concentration and marginalization, (2) ambivalence of value orientation, (3) the
intersection of political structure and economic structure (4) urbanization and
marginalization". (Moeljarto Tjokrowinoto, in Haneman, 1990:58). A condition full of
ambivalence in the behavior of individuals, groups and institutions that develop within
it.
But when the situation changes, opinion leaders are able to restore traditional
power, so that credibility in the community is also recognized. In relation to social
power, Mc.Iver and Page (1967:37) state:
Social power is always present in individuals with each other, individuals with
groups or groups with groups in society, in which there is the capacity to control
relationships, command and provide services.
Power in rural communities is a relational force that is mutually agreed upon in a
social system. When modernization with its industrialization is considered to have
failed to provide welfare, then Traditional power in the social, cultural and agricultural
spheres, even issues that were once dominated by the government and its agents such
as political issues, can also be controlled by opinion leaders.
In the environment of opinion leaders who support industrialization, in the initial
situation of the factory, they are considered to have no credibility, except in political
information, opinion leaders are considered to have credibility. Their heyday was
when industrialization developed rapidly, almost all rural issues were controlled so
that people considered opinion leaders to have credibility due to the support of the
government and capital owners.
In terms of credibility stemming from relationships with state power and economic
power, Gerth and Mills (1967:180) argue, "power may not be the only social honor,
but it can also be based on political and economic power guaranteed by the rule of law
(legal order)". With this principle, opinion leaders became stronger when
industrialization developed rapidly.
When the multi-dimensional crisis occurred, these opinion leaders were eliminated
from their audiences. They were considered to have no credibility, and were even
cornered because of their position as a source of problems at a time when the
hegemony of government power was very great.
4.
Ties between Communication Patterns and Credibility Feasibility :
The pattern of communication between opinion leaders and villagers results in an
assessment of the appropriateness of the credibility of opinion leaders. It does not
appear that every form of communication will always have the same impact on the
assessment of the village community. This is because communication patterns that are
considered feasible are also related to the demands of the community, the role and
support of the government, and the existence of other message sources that are
increasingly easy to find or access from the village area, such as mass media and
contemporary figures.
The determination of credibility which is influenced by many factors, in the
context of public opinion but has the same substance, is stated by Rush and Althoff
(1997: 282), namely:
Public opinion depends on the societal context, knowledge, values and attitudes
that are determined by the interaction between the social environment and the
individual and the result of face-to-face contact with mass media and opinion
leaders.
Villagers will express that opinion leaders have appropriate credibility depending
on various aspects, so communication patterns will not produce a standardized model
of eligibility for credibility.
The ideal figure of opinion leaders changes from time to time in line with the
internal and external environment of the village. The characteristics desired by the
community in an agrarian lifestyle are the maintenance of rural values, in situations of
industrialization demand adaptation from opinion leaders, and in situations of
economic crisis the community demands freedom.
Based on the table above, the credibility worthiness of opinion leaders does not
depend on the communication pattern. Linear communication cannot be identified
with an unfavorable communication pattern. Because in some situations and types of
information needed It turns out that the linear communication pattern of opinion
leaders can also be categorized as something worthy of supporting the credibility of
their role.
Similarly, not every interactive communication pattern between opinion leaders
and their audiences always reflects the freedom of speech or opinion that villagers
prefer. In fact, interactive communication patterns by opinion leaders can also be
considered inappropriate by villagers when related to the village situation and the type
of information needed.
Thus, communication patterns cannot be used as a measure to determine the
appropriateness or inappropriateness of a rural opinion leader's role credibility. To find
out more clearly about the relationship between communication patterns and the
feasibility of role credibility, opinion leaders are grouped into those who reject
industrialization and those who support industrialization in the village.
4.1.
The Fragile Relationship between Opinion Leaders and Industry in Rural
Areas:
In the situation of an agricultural village, linear communication patterns in social
and cultural issues during the agricultural period are categorized as feasible by the
villagers, as they are more focused on shared values. Similarly, when it comes to
agricultural issues, opinion leaders are still considered feasible because their expertise
is recognized in the village environment.
But beyond these three issues, opinion leaders who communicate in any way are
not credible because they do not have a good grasp of the issues related to agriculture
and trade in a dynamic village. This characteristic is in line with Uphoff's (1974:4)
opinion that "paternalistic villagers are passive and fatalistic and are not interested in
making efforts to improve their welfare through village organizations that anticipate
change". Opinion leaders have values, beliefs and cosmic relationships that are
maintained in changing situations, while some people demand adaptation to change.
Whereas in political matters, the ineligibility of opinion leaders is due to their
inability to balance, criticize or even oppose various kinds of political will from the
government and Karya Group. Although the community still realizes that it is
impossible to compete with the combined power of political groups and capital owners
who want to invest in the village.
In line with the influence of three strong groups, Todaro (1983:152), states:
"changes in the economic structure of society cannot be separated from
transformations in attitudes, institutions and ideologies that support them". The village
area at the beginning of factory construction began to experience socio-economic
changes controlled by the government and capital owners.
The development of industry in rural areas has a major influence on people's
attitudes towards opinion leaders who oppose industrialization. People tend to judge
the credibility of the role of opinion leaders as not worthy of reference for discussing
all types of information. Willingness to communicate interactively or transactionally is
interpreted as a liability and an inability to cope with change.
In relation to interactive forms of communication in community groups, Sean
MacBride et al (1980:39) state as follows:
Communication in any social system involves debate and discussion with the
exchange of facts necessary to enable agreement or resolve differences of opinion
on public issues, provide relevant evidence in the public interest and for people to
engage in communication of common interest at international, national and local
levels.
The two-way communication of opinion leaders is something that is considered
normal in the social system, so it cannot be used as a factor that supports the feasibility
of their role as information providers within the village. On the other hand, the
incessant rhetoric of the government's success with economic development has
marginalized these opinion leaders from their expected roles in the community.
Meanwhile, in situations of industrial decline, all issues that become public
discussion can be well mastered by opinion leaders so that they can be categorized as
having proper credibility in the village community. Consistency of opinion leaders to
remain guided by traditional characteristics is not in vain, because the distrust of rural
communities towards industrialization causes them to recognize the existence of
values contained in agricultural society. In this context Le Vine (1987) states:
It is misleading to think of traditional values as something to be destroyed and
replaced, but instead they can be combined with new institutions or new patterns
of behavior, so that there is no break with the past because continuity remains
despite fundamental change. (Le Vine in Rush and Althoff, 1997: 110-111).
The ideal change that should occur in the village is a combination of respect for
positive traditional values with new values that are democratic, rational and
productive, thus not limited to the spirit of blaming the era of bureaucratic political
hegemony and returning to the moral values of agricultural traditions.
However, at the moment what is seen is still limited to the spirit of returning to
rural moral values without being accompanied by democratic and rational behavior. In
fact, every time people want their leaders to be democratic. But it is not easy to behave
democratically, because as Alex Inkeles describes, namely: "democratic behavior is a
willingness to accept others, open to new experiences and ideas, responsible but wary
of power and tolerant of differences" (Alex Inkeles in Rush and Althoff, 1997: 46).
This is a requirement that is not easy for opinion leaders or rural communities to fulfill
in an instant.
4.2.
Docked to the Power of Factory:
The tendency for opinion leaders to use one-way communication with villagers in
agricultural village situations at the beginning of industrialization resulted in mixed
assessments. In discussions about social, cultural and agricultural issues, opinion
leaders were perceived as lacking credibility. Yet this group of opinion leaders had
tried to adapt to the community situation by exploring common values in every
message delivery.
The operation of the factory in the village, which was strongly supported by these
opinion leaders, was not able to convince the community. In terms of rural politics,
although opinion leaders communicate in a one-way linear pattern, they are
categorized as having credible roles, because the village situation with dominant
government forces requires that villagers do not participate in politics as in the floating
mass policy. In terms of rural politics, although opinion leaders communicate in a one-
way linear pattern, they are categorized as having appropriate role credibility, because
the village situation with the dominant government power requires that villagers do
not participate in politics as in the floating mass policy and do not need to be active in
assessing village government development policies.
The villagers' assessment of the appropriateness of the role played by opinion
leaders is simply due to their ignorance of political rights and democratization, as, "a
political system in which majority voting in regular, non-coercive elections institutes
limits on government power". (Berger1990:108-109).
During the period of industrial development, opinion leaders had decent credibility
in various rural issues, except for agricultural issues as the core of the local
community's original livelihood. Agricultural issues still do not provide opportunities
for opinion leaders who are considered responsible for the fading prestige of Klari as a
rice producer in Karawang.
The actual level of eligibility substantively refers to the strong political references
of the government and the ruling party. Village speeches often contain elements of
propaganda, leading individuals to support the ruler's program. In the view of
Rosengreen and Windahl (1962),:
Propaganda is more of a social control technique directed at individuals as
members of a group, while rhetoric is more of a para-social relationship approach
between communicators and their audiences. (Rosengreen and Windahl, in
Suwardi, 1994: 25).
The interaction between opinion leaders and the village community is more
characterized by political communication, or in the view of Rush and Althoff (1997:
256), namely:
Political communication does not need to be a structural part of the political
system, because in various communication opportunities, there can be messages
that contain a series of political proposals and policies conveyed to their audiences.
In fact, in traditional rural situations, where people are apolitical or depoliticized,
the government's political actions associated with power are part of an effort to
maintain political dominance in the bureaucracy. Lerner's research in the World
indicates that:
In the political life of Turkey in the 1970s, coercion was used instead of
persuasion in many instances, not because the opponent had the upper hand, but
simply because of the ruler's anxiety about the existence of the government.
(Daniel Lerner, 1983:106).
In industrial villages and other parts of Indonesia, there is no counterbalance to the
power of the government party and the government bureaucracy in politics, but efforts
to influence and coerce people into compliance as constituents are ongoing and
reached their peak during the 1997 general election campaign and previous elections.
After experiencing a period that always favored the role of all entities in state
power, opinion leaders began to be displaced from public communication when the
economic crisis occurred, so that their mastery and role in all problems in the
countryside were considered by the community to be no longer feasible.
HOPE FOR THE DEMOCRATIZATION OF
COMMUNICATION
1.
The Existence of Opinion Leaders as Elite in the Community:
The source of information as a community reference in discussing the problems
faced and the situation around it in various village situations, in the frame of
democratization of communication, is opinion leaders as rural elites or other message-
spreading entities, which have clarity and truthfulness of messages, compatibility with
the interests of the village community, and other positive criteria possessed by an
information source in delivering social, economic and political messages to its
audience.
Representative of these criteria, villagers choose information sources in various
village situations are rural opinion leaders, mass media and other trusted sources of
information. Thus, in the frame of freedom of communication, opinion leaders are not
the only main source of information for rural communities undergoing change as
known in the two-step flow communication model.
In the context of these problems, opinion leaders as elites in society, mass media
and other sources of information, it is appropriate if they strive to maintain the rural
social environment, positioning as a source of information by conveying the truth of
the message, respecting the right of rural communities to seek or express opinions
freely in overcoming various socio-cultural, economic and political problems in the
rural environment.
The pattern of communication between opinion leaders and village communities
that takes place linearly and interactively in various village situations, from the stage
of glory and harmonization of the village as an ideal habitat for agriculture, displaced
by industrial forces, to the fading of factory operations in the countryside, becomes a
more diverse manifestation of community interaction and communication.
Linear communication patterns are not always synonymous with the superiority of
mastery of information from the source of the message to its audience, the power
possessed by the cursive source of the message in delivering the message, and the
power of the technology of disseminating the message, but the essence of linear
communication, can take place because of indifference, compulsion, lack of courage,
the influence of traditional communication and other weaknesses of rural
communities, in relation to a number of elites in the perspective of Max Weber's
stratification of society, which includes social, material and power structures.
While interactive communication does not fully indicate that opinion leaders and
villagers are in a democratic situation or equal position in the control of information, it
is also caused by the emergence of freedom of speech in the corridor of political
reform, the availability of information from various sources of messages that are easily
obtained, and other factors that refer to the form of resistance of villagers to symbols
of power that are considered not in favor of the people.
The diversity of communication patterns between opinion leaders and the
community in various village situations, should be used as a starting point for opinion
leaders and interested parties in the village, to adjust communication patterns to the
demands of the village community, improving the way messages are delivered that are
not detrimental to the socio-cultural, economic and political life of the village
community, in line with the demands of democratization in the life of the nation and
state.
Linear and interactive communication patterns should be followed by positioning
village communities as audiences who master information and have the ability to
communicate. Thus, opinion leaders and various parties with an interest in the
potential of the village must improve their mastery of socio-cultural, economic and
political information from competent sources to support the formation of an integrative
communication pattern that does not contain differentiation values in the life of a
civilized village community.
Factors that support or reduce the credibility of the role of opinion leaders are
based on their consistent command of information on the socio-cultural values of rural
communities, economic and political behavior, relationships with formal power and
capital owners, and demands for freedom of information in changing rural situations,
in line with the dynamics of the countryside, which is often used as a base for
economic and political power, but ignores the real social existence of the countryside
that must be institutionalized.
Therefore, it is appropriate for opinion leaders as community elites, in various
village situations, to continuously improve the factors that support the credibility of
their roles, by respecting the socio-cultural, economic and political values of village
communities, and maintaining impartiality with formal power, capital owners and
other supporting entities, which tend not to favor the people.
In addition, opinion leaders must eliminate factors that reduce the credibility of
their role, through actions that are desired by the village community by adapting to the
demands of change in line with the dynamics of state reform. Instead of closing
themselves off to negotiations by adapting pseudo, even confrontational changes that
are considered unfavorable individually or in groups.
2.
Expectations of Other Research or Studies :
Given that this paper covers a wide range of theories, methods and concepts in
communication science, academically, this research needs to be developed more
specialized in the study of political communication and mass communication. An
interesting topic for further research is whether development messages conveyed by
the government in situations of freedom of expression influence the political
orientation of village communities; in addition, to what extent do opinion leaders,
mass media and other sources of information play a role in directing the political
choices of village communities?
Still to be developed further is research on the topic of intercultural
communication in situations of change in rural areas. Observing the emergence of
industrialization which has an impact on ethnic diversity, it is quite interesting to
conduct a more in-depth study of the patterns of interaction and communication
between communities ethnically diverse villages in a situation of different socio-
cultural values on the one hand, and the material interests of a decent life in the
context of rural industrialization on the other.
This paper is based on the results of research using qualitative methods, so it is
still possible to conduct similar research using quantitative methods, which are in
accordance with the theoretical and methodological aspects of the credibility of the
role of opinion leaders in the changing rural situation due to the development of
industrialization.
