Open, closed texts
networks’. See blogosphere; internet; media
activism; mediation; networking: social
networking; web 2.0.
Opera omnia Latin for ‘All his works’, the term
denotes a total ban on an author’s writings
imposed by the Roman Catholic Index Librorum
Prohibitorum, fi rst issued in 1559. A few such
prohibited writers have been David Hume, Émile
Zola, Jean-Paul Sartre and Alberto Moravia. See
censorship; index.
Opinion leader Someone able to infl uence infor-
mally other individuals’ attitudes and/or behav-
iour in a desired way with relative frequency.
He/she is a type of informal leader. Opinion
leadership is earned and maintained by the indi-
vidual’s technical competence, sociability and
conformity to the norms of the social system.
When such leaders are compared to their follow-
ers, several characteristics are of note: opinion
leaders are more exposed to all forms of external
communication; more cosmopolite; of a higher
social status; and more innovative.
Opinion leaders are widely thought to play a
vital role in the spreading of new ideas, values
and beliefs. As Paul Lazarsfeld has noted in
several studies, opinion leaders can be important
intermediaries in the process of communication,
including mass communication, in that they
have the potential to infl uence reaction, among
those around them, to messages received.
An opinion leader whose range of infl uence is
limited to one specifi c topic exercises monomor-
phic opinion leadership. Th is type of leadership
is thought to be typical of modern, industrial
societies, as the complex technological base of
such societies results in a sophisticated division
of labour and considerable specialization of
roles. Monomorphic opinion leadership can be
related to what Randy Bobbitt and Ruth Sullivan
in Developing the Public Relations Campaign
(Pearson, 2005) term N-step theory. This
proposes that ‘individuals seldom receive infor-
mation from only one opinion leader. Instead,
they are likely to turn to diff erent opinion leaders
for each issue on which they form an opinion’.
An opinion leader whose influence covers
a wide range of topics exercises polymorphic
opinion leadership. This is generally thought
to be more common in traditional societies. A
respected, elderly member of a village, for exam-
ple, might be consulted on a variety of matters
ranging from marriage problems to methods of
harvesting. See one-step, two-step, multi-
step models of communication.
Opinion poll Th e process or processes by which
public opinion is researched, the findings offew of them (zap, for example) starting life in
comics and cartoons.
Open, closed texts Italian semiologist Umberto
Eco has made this useful separation between
texts that are varyingly articulated, to either
permit little or no interpretation on the part of
audience (closed texts) or to allow plenty of
room for interpretation (open texts). A work of
art – a poem, a painting, a piece of sculpture, for
example – would represent an open text in that
the intention of the writer, painter or sculptor is
to express ideas or feelings which may be inter-
preted in diff erent ways and at diff erent levels.
Th e open text invites a sense of participation
in the reader or viewer, and the interaction that
occurs between creator, creation and audience is
one in which ‘right answers’ are less important
than the possibility of a proactive response; and
this may be subject to fl ux in diff ering instances
and at varying times. propaganda would
constitute closed text in that there is a rigorously
preferred reading: the decoder is expected to
receive the message, and register its meaning
as intended by the communicator. Any diver-
gence from acceptance would, to quote another
term of Eco’s, represent aberrant decoding. See
anchorage; decode.
Open source Works on the principle of free
access to information, including computer
software and the practice of user participation
- a classic example of online open source being
wikipedia, which allows users to write their
own defi nitions and make adjustments or altera-
tions to existing entries without prior clearance.
Such open platforms of communication have
been pioneered by, for example, Independent
Media Centres (IMCs), generally referred to as
Indymedia. Th eir mission is to bypass traditional
mass media and the control mechanisms of
governments and corporations, their working
aspirations being the furtherance of equality and
democracy.
Existing regulation such as copyright rules are
rejected. Public interest is favoured over privacy
rights and new technologies are regarded as
tools of intervention. Open source is almost
invariably the product and process of collabo-
ration in which committed people, usually
highly skilled in the use of new technologies,
seek to inform, influence and activate public
opinion. The key is mobilization, which is
accomplished, writes Lea A. Lievrouw in Alter-
native and Activist New Media (Polity, 2011), ‘by
cultivating collective identities, shared values,
and a sense of belonging among people linked
in diff use, decentralized social and community