Jurnal Ilmu Sosial dan Ilmu Politik ISSN 1410-4946

Volume 12, Nomor 2, November 2008 (121 - 256)

Polling sebagai Ekspresi Opini Publik, Pilar Kelima Demokrasi?

Wisnu Martha A d i p u t r a l

Abstract

Public opinion is one of important elements of democracy. Public opinion is considered as fifth estate of den~ocracy. 7'his paper examines public opinion concept and its position asfifth estate of democracy. It also tries to explore the challenges of public opinion as in~portant factor for democratic political communication in Indonesia. It argues that the absence of public in political communication makes public opinion uneasy to become tlzefiffh estate. This paper acknowledges the importance of public opinion in Indonesian democracy. Moreover, this paper explains horv far public op in io~~ drarus Indonesian democracy.

Kata-kata kunci: opini publik, pilar kelima, polling dan demokrasi

Pengantar: Pada Mulanya adalah Suara Rakyat Dalam menilai proses Reformasi Indonesia yang terjadi kurang

lebih sepuluh tahun yang lalu, para ahli berada dalam dua kutub argu-

' Wisnu Marta Adiputra adalah staf pengajarJumsan Ilmu Komunikasi, Fakultas Ilmu Sosial dan Ilmu Politik, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta. Ia bisa dihubungi melalui email: wisnumartha@yahoo.com atau wisnumarthal4@ gmail.com.