Opinion leaders communicating on plastic surgery: An analysis of Instagram postings by selected social media celebrities [Komunikasi pemimpin pendapat dalam isu pembedahan plastik: Suatu analisis kandungan dalam Instagram selebriti media sosial terpilih]

Opinion leaders play an important role to influence people’s perception and decision making on health. social media has also allowed opinion leaders to communicate faster and allow public to talk about health issues openly. this can be observed in variety of health topics,whereby social media becomes a platform for discussion and sharing of information. this ‘openness’ also allowed people to discuss health issues that are sensitive and taboo on a bigger platform. this study employs parasocial opinion leadership model to explore how social media celebrities communicate about plastic surgery on their social media account i.e. instagram. content analysis was conducted on instagram postings of ten selected social media celebrities,including pictures,videos,captions,as well as hashtags used when communicating about plastic surgery. this study found that sharing own experiences and selfie pictures are the two main ways social media celebrities opt for when talking about plastic surgery. it was also observed that social media celebrities wrote their captions in a relaxed tone and utilised hashtags to describe plastic surgery procedures. in general,the way these social media celebrities communicate about plastic surgery follows elements suggested in the parasocial opinion leadership model,namely orientation,arousal of interest,as well as information and reduction of complexity. © 2017,universiti kebangsaan malaysia press. all rights reserved.