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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 Adiputral 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~portantfactor for democratic political communication in Indonesia. It argues that the absence of public i n 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 opinio~~ 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: [email protected] atau wisnumarthal4@ gmail.com.
