The Power of Influence: Insights into Theology Students' Perceptions of Social Media Opinion Leadership

Abstract

Social media platforms have shaped individuals' thoughts and behaviors in today's digital age. Unlike traditional opinion leaders, virtual influencers gaining popularity on these platforms may influence opinions, attitudes, and ways of thinking. This study aims to contribute to the social sciences literature by offering a new perspective on the role of social media influencers. The research was conducted using a quantitative survey model commonly used in social sciences. Data were collected from theology students (N=466) at a public university in Türkiye. The participants were administered the "Social media influencers' opinion leadership scale in the eyes of followers". When comparing the data, a t-test was used between two groups, and one-way ANOVA was used to compare more than two groups. The Post Hoc Tukey test was used for further analysis in case of significant differences. The quantitative analysis revealed significant differences in trust, imitation, communication, and entertainment (p<0.05). The study concludes that social media influencers have the potential to share the roles traditionally held by opinion leaders, religious authorities, and educators, particularly within the dimensions investigated. This highlights the need for further exploration of their impact in these domains.

Keywords

• Education and Training
• Religious Education
• Opinion Leadership
• Social Media Influencers

Etkilemenin Gücü: İlahiyat Fakültesi Öğrencilerinin Sosyal Medya Fenomenleri Kanaat Önderliği Algılarına Yönelik Bir İçgörü

Öz

Günümüz dijital çağında sosyal medya platformları bireylerin düşüncelerini ve davranışlarını şekillendiren önemli etkenler haline gelmiştir. Geleneksel kanaat önderliğinden farklı olarak bu platformlarda popülerlik kazanan sanal etkileyiciler; kanaatleri, tutumları ve düşünme biçimlerini yönlendirebilmektedir. Bu çalışma, sosyal bilimler literatürüne katkı sağlamayı hedeflemekte ve sosyal medya fenomenlerinin rolünü anlamak için yeni bir perspektif sunmaktadır. Araştırma, sosyal bilimlerde yaygın olan nicel tarama modeli kullanılarak tasarlanmıştır. Veriler, Türkiye’de bir devlet üniversitesinde ilahiyat eğitimi alan öğrencilerden (N=466) elde edilmiştir. Katılımcılara “Takipçiler nezdinde sosyal medya fenomenleri kanaat önderliği ölçeği” uygulanmıştır. Verilerin karşılaştırılmasında iki gruplu değişkenlerde t testi, ikiden fazla grup olduğu takdirde one-way Anova işe koşulmuştur. Anlamlı farklılıklara ilişkin ileri analizler için ise Post Hoc Tukey uygulanmıştır. Analizler sonucunda güven, taklit, iletişim ve eğlence boyutlarında anlamlı farklılıklar tespit edilmiştir (p<0.05). Çalışma sonucunda sosyal medya fenomenlerinin araştırmadaki boyutlar itibariyle kanaat önderlerinin, dini otoritelerin ve öğreticilerin rolünü paylaşma potansiyeline sahip olduğu ifade edilmiştir. Bu durum bahsedilen alanlardaki etkilerin açığa çıkarılması için daha fazla araştırmaya ihtiyaç duyulduğuna işaret etmektedir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Eğitim ve Öğretim
• Din Eğitimi
• Kanaat Önderliği
• Sosyal Medya Fenomenleri

Kaynakça

1. Angraini, N. (2023). Social media marketing influencer: Literature review on promotional strategies using the influence of social media celebrities. International Journal of Economic Research and Financial Accounting (IJERFA), 1(4). https://doi.org/10.55227/ijerfa.v1i4.42
2. Arifin, I., Imansyah, R. T., & Okto, A. B. (2022). The influence of dakwah through social media toward student understanding of Islam. Digital Press Social Sciences and Humanities, 8, 00003. https://doi.org/10.29037/digitalpress.48416
3. Atmaca, V. (2007). Anadolu’da Yesevilik- Yesevilik Menakıbnamesi özelinde peygamber tasavvuru. 38. ICANAS Uluslararası Asya ve Kuzey Afrika Çalışmaları Kongresi: Din = International Congress of Asian and North African Studies, 43-67.
4. Burhani, H., Waseso, H. P., Atieqoh, S., & Hamidi, A. (2021). Mainstreaming religious moderation on millennial generation through religious literacy on social media. Proceedings of the 3rd International Symposium on Religious Life, ISRL 2020, 2-5 November 2020, Bogor, Indonesia. https://doi.org/10.4108/eai.2-11-2020.2305069
5. Burt, R. S. (1999). The social capital of opinion leaders. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 566(1), Article 1. https://doi.org/10.1177/000271629956600104
6. Büyüköztürk, Y. Ş., Aygün, Ö., Çakmak, E. K., & Karadeniz, Ş. (2016). Bilimsel araştırma yöntemleri (20. Baskı). Pegem Akademi Yayıncılık.
7. Chang, S., Wang, C., & Kuo, C. (2020). Social media influencer research: A bibliometric analysis. International Journal of Electronic Commerce Studies, 11(2). https://doi.org/10.7903/ijecs.1975
8. Chu, K., Majmundar, A., Allem, J., Soto, D. W., Cruz, T. B., & Unger, J. B. (2019). Tobacco use behaviors, attitudes, and demographic characteristics of tobacco opinion leaders and their followers: Twitter analysis. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 21(6), e12676. https://doi.org/10.2196/12676

9. Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2021). Araştırma deseni nitel, nicel ve karma yöntem yaklaşımları (Kolektif, Çev.; 5. Basım). Nobel Akademik Yayıncılık.
10. Dubois, E., Minaeian, S., Paquet-Labelle, A., & Beaudry, S. G. (2020). Who to trust on social media: How opinion leaders and seekers avoid disinformation and echo chambers. Social Media + Society, 6(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120913993
11. Febriani, S. R., & Ritonga, A. W. (2022). The perception of millennial generation on religious moderation through social media in the digital era. Millah: Journal of Religious Studies, 313-334. https://doi.org/10.20885/millah.vol21.iss2.art1
12. Forbes, K. (2016). Examining the beauty industry’s use of social influencers. Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications, 7(2), 78-87.
13. Freyer, H. (2013). Din sosyolojisi (T. Kalpsüz, Çev.). Doğu Batı Yayınları.
14. George, D., & Mallery, P. (2019). IBM SPSS statistics 26 step by step: A simple guide and reference. Routledge.
15. Huda, M., Arif, M., Rahim, M. M. A., & Anshari, M. (2024). Islamic religious education learning media in the technology era: A systematic literature review. At-Tadzkir: Islamic Education Journal, 3(2), 83-102. https://doi.org/10.59373/attadzkir.v3i2.62
16. Karasar, N. (2007). Bilimsel araştırma yöntemi: Kavramlar, ilkeler, teknikler. Nobel Yayınları.
17. Katz, E. (1957). The Two-Step Flow of Communication: An Up-To-Date Report on an Hypothesis*. Public Opinion Quarterly, 21(1), Article 1. https://doi.org/10.1086/266687
18. Kaymaz, Ö. T. (2013). Kanaat önderi kavramının yeni mecrası. 11. International Conference on Communication, Media, Technology and Design, Cyprus.
19. Kharismatunisa, I. (2023). Innovation and creativity of islamic religious education teachers in utilizing digital-based learning media. Scaffolding: Jurnal Pendidikan Islam Dan Multikulturalisme, 5(3), 519-538. https://doi.org/10.37680/scaffolding.v5i3.3700
20. Latorre, M. (2021). WEB 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 ve 4.0’ın tarihi (Ö. Yılmaz, Çev.). Maltepe Üniversitesi İletişim Fakültesi Dergisi, 8(2), 344-350.
21. Lazarsfeld, P. F., Berelson, B., & Gaudet, H. (1948). The People’s Choice: How the Voter Makes Up His Mind in a Presidential Campaign, Legacy Edition (s. 224 Pages). Duell, Sloan and Pearce.
22. Lazarsfeld, P. F., Berelson, B., & Gaudet, H. (1968). The people’s choice: How the voter makes up his mind in a presidential campaign. Columbia University Press.
23. Mardin, Ş. (2015). Bediüzzaman Said Nursi olayı: Modern Türkiye’de din ve toplumsal değişim, İletişim Yayınları.
24. Marwick, A., & Boyd, D. (2011). To see and be seen: Celebrity practice on Twitter. Convergence, 17(2), 139-158.
25. Merton, R. K. (1969). Social theory and social structure. Free Press.
26. Mufron, A., Fata, T. H., Akib, A., Norlaila, N., & Rohmani, A. H. (2024). The concept of islamic education today in the challenges of the social media era. Al-Hijr: Journal of Adulearn World, 3(1), 11-28. https://doi.org/10.55849/alhijr.v3i1.579
27. Padilla, A., Hogan, R., & Kaiser, R. B. (2007). The toxic triangle: destructive leaders, susceptible followers, and conducive environments. The Leadership Quarterly, 18(3), Article 3. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2007.03.001
28. Prasojo, Z. H., Masri, M. S. bin H., Fauzi, A., & Rahmiani, N. (2020). Religious identity in the use of social media within pontianak Muslim community. KARSA Journal of Social and Islamic Culture, 28(1), Article 1. https://doi.org/10.19105/karsa.v28i1.3284
29. Rössler, P. (2017). The international encyclopedia of media effects, 4 volume set. John Wiley & Sons.
30. Scott, D. M. (2010). Pazarlamanın ve iletişimin yeni kuralları (N. Özata, Çev.). Mediacat Kitapları.
31. Setia, P., & Dilawati, R. (2024). Religiosity in the digital era and the challenges of hoaxes, post-truth and radicalism on social media. Jurnal Iman Dan Spiritualitas, 4(1), 67-76. https://doi.org/10.15575/jis.v4i1.33230
32. Shi, J., & Salmon, C. T. (2018). Identifying opinion leaders to promote organ donation on social media: Network study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 20(1), 7.
33. Simon, Christiaan, J. A., Yulianto, A. T., & Cahyadi, T. E. (2023). The pattern of religious life in the era of social media. Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, 162-170. https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-160-9_19
34. Supriyadi, S., Qowaid, Q., Lebeng, L., Huda, N., Nurwidayati, N., Muhammad, R., Anwar, M., Yuniarsih, S. M., Harahap, E., Amalia, A., Susianingsih, S., Yuniawati, N., Sulistyani, S., Sulastri, E., Ramadhani, O., Mufidah, N., & Hidayat, W. (2021). The influence of social media and parent supervision on religious moderation in the covid-19 pandemic time. Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Religion and Education, INCRE 2020, 11-12 November 2020, Jakarta, Indonesia. https://doi.org/10.4108/eai.11-11-2020.2308199
35. Tam, M. S. (2020). Sosyal medya kullanım motivasyonlarının sosyal medya fenomenlerinin kanaat önderliği rolü üzerine etkisi [Doktora Tezi]. İstanbul Üniversitesi.
36. Tanrıöğen, A. (2009). Bilimsel araştırma yöntemleri. Anı yayıncılık.
37. Ulutaş, E. (2016). Kanaat önderi bir liderlik fenomenolojisi. Açılım Kitap.
38. Wahyunengsih, W., & Izzami, Z. A. (2022). The effect of social media tiktok on increasing islamic knowledge among students. FOKUS (Kajian Bimbingan &Amp; Konseling Dalam Pendidikan), 5(3), 217-226. https://doi.org/10.22460/fokus.v5i3.10874
39. Wang, J., Ding, K., Zhu, Z., Zhang, Y., & Caverlee, J. (2020). Key opinion leaders in recommendation systems. Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Web Search and Data Mining. https://doi.org/10.1145/3336191.3371826
40. Weeks, B. E., Ardèvol‐Abreu, A., & Zúñiga, H. G. d. (2015). Online influence? Social media use, opinion leadership, and political persuasion. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, edv050. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijpor/edv050
41. Weimann, G. (1994). The influentials: People who influence people. State University of New York Press.
42. Yuliawati, E., & Asri, I. (2022). Religious moderation: An analysis of understanding, internet and social media exposure and social interaction systems. Jurnal The Messenger, 14(2), Article 2. https://doi.org/10.26623/themessenger.v14i2.2812
43. Zarrella, D. (2009). The social media marketing book. O’Reilly Media, Inc.
44. Zhao, Y., Kou, G., Peng, Y., & Chen, Y. (2018). Understanding Influence power of opinion leaders in e-commerce networks: An opinion dynamics theory perspective. Information Sciences, 426, 131-147. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ins.2017.10.031
45. Zuhri, B., Tahir, G., Arbianingsih, A., & Aksa, A. (2023). Religious moderation of millennial generation at Islamic higher education in eastern Indonesia. Al-Tahrir: Jurnal Pemikiran Islam, 23(2), 293-325. https://doi.org/10.21154/altahrir.v23i2.6911