COMMNEWS UMN

HOW ROBUST RHETORICAL

POWER OF A DIGITAL
INFLUENCER?
(Study on the Acceptance of Followers in
Food Vlogger TikTok Account @Kulinersamacici)

By:
Kezia Ester & Agustinus R. Berto (2021)
 INTRODUCTION

The use of persuasive communication

The Three Purposes of Speakers: to
techniques expressed by opinion The audience is the key to the success of
inform, entertain, and persuade.
leaders/influencers does not only refer to incoming persuasion messages. For that,
According to Aristotle, persuasion can
hard selling but also soft selling. This before the message is actually received, see
be achieved if the communicator has
technique becomes a strategy to build and how the decision process will be taken by
ethos, logos, and pathos.
lead public/follower trust in order to do combining Rhetoric Theory with Social
something as expected (Paramitha et al., Judgment Theory.
2018).

02
01 03
 Rhetoric theory is used as a persuasion communication tool which is
also practiced in the field of literature, advertising and others.

Five studies only focused on discussing the communicator ethos (Alberico &
Loisa, 2019; Chuan Lu et al, 2014; Paramitha et al, 2018; Yonker, 2012;
Ledbetter, 2018), six studies on the discussion of pathos related to the
dimensions shown (Alberico & Loisa, 2019; Ledbetter, 2018; Paramita & Irena
2020; Yan Su, 2019; Scaraboto & Pereira, 2013; Silvaa et al, 2019), and a
study conducted by Paramita and Irena (2020) which briefly discusses the
logos of Youtuber content. obtained.
@KULINERSAMACICI
Vinny's TikTok account reaches 1.5 million followers with a
total of 53.4 million likes (as of October 10, 2020).
Presenting various information and reviews of viral and
legendary culinary delights in the JaBoDeTaBeK area. She not
only reviews restaurant food but also street food and other
MSMEs.
Successfully entered the TikTok Awards 2020 as Rising Star Of
The Year (Kristabela, 2021, p. 1).
The culinary videos have been watched by more than 1 million
views, so they are often included in fyp/explore TikTok.

TIKTOK
Being the second most downloaded non-game application in
the world in 2019, it reached 1.5 billion on the App Store and
Google Play (Wardani, 2020, p. 1).
Indonesia is the country with the most TikTok downloads
reaching 11% (Pertiwi, 2020, p. 1).
Several brands that had breakthroughs from
advertisements/promotions, such as Bittersweet by Najla and
Esteh Indonesia, and others (Pratnyawan & Prisilla, 2020).
RESEARCH QUESTIONS & OBJECTIVES
This study will determine whether there is an influence and how much
influence from food vlogger Vinny Laurencia's rhetoric has on the
acceptance of followers on social media. In addition, looking which
rhetorical evidence is the most influential?
 THEORY & CONCEPT
RHETORICAL THEORY SOCIAL JUDGMENT THEORY
West & Turner, 2018, p. 312 (Morissan, 2013, p. 80)

3 main assumptions (Latitude of

The 3 Main Dimensions (Ethos,
Acceptance, Latitude of Rejection, &
Logos, Pathos)
Latitude of Noncommitment).

Digital Influencers Concept Social Media User TikTok Social

(Backaler, 2018, p. 22) Generation Concept Media Concept
Three types of digital influencer
Gen Y (1980-1996)
levels, Food Vlogger itself is included Advantages & TikTok Algorithm
Gen Z (1997-2012)
in the Influencer Category
 Research Flow

Rhetorical Theory Aristoteles Social Judgment Theory, M.

(West & Turner, 2018, p 310) Sherif (Morissan, 2013, p. 82)

Rhetoric Character/credibility
Followers Latitude of
Food (Ethos)
Logos Evidence Acceptance Acceptance
Vlogger
(Logos) (Y) Latitude of
(X)
Emotional Evidence Rejection
(Pathos)
SAMPLE CRITERIA
Respondents are social media followers
@kulinersamacici who understand and love
culinary
Respondents watched & followed
@kulinersamcici's reviews on TikTok who
live in / outside JABODETABEK. EXPLANATIVE QUANTITATIVE
Respondents have a TikTok account & play
social media.

POPULATION SURVEY METHOD BY SHARING QUESTIONNAIRE ONLINE

All followers of Instagram Vinny (82.8K, as of March

18, 2021) who are also some of her TikTok followers
@kulinersamacici.
1000 Instagram followers who are actively involved PROBABILITY SAMPLING (Systematic Sampling)
in providing comments or likes interactions on the 5
highest culinary content in the Top Nine Best of
Instagram-Best of 2020.
Top Nine Best of Instagram-Best of
2020.
TAKES FIVE (5) SELECTED CONTENT
 TEST VALIDITY and RELIABILITY
DATA COLLECTION TECHNIQUE
Distributing online questionnaires with google
forms and observing the content of TikTok
@kulinersamacici
Literature study
01 VALIDITY TEST
There is 1 of 22 valid statements on the X
variable which has a value of r arithmetic (0.360)
DATA MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUES < r table (0.361), namely item number 13. Then
it is declared invalid and will not be used in the
Using a 4-point Likert Scale, namely STS(1),
questionnaire.
TS(2), S(3), SS(4) for the X variable and the
dimension of 'Acceptance Latitude' for the Y
Meanwhile, for the 19 statements on the Y
variable.
variable, it is declared all valid
Meanwhile for 'Rejection Latitude' the LIKERT
value is reversed, so that it becomes STS(4),
TS(3), S(2), SS(1).

02 RELIABILITY TEST
Reliability testing was also reliable for each
statement in the X and Y variables (Cronbach
alpha values >0.6).
CLASSIC ASSUMPTION TEST
THROUGH 3 STAGES OF DATA BECOME 271 RESPONDENTS

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3

HETEROSCEDASTICITY
NORMALITY TEST LINEARITY TEST TEST
The significance value Value of Sig. deviation Value of Sig. Food
obtained is from linearity is 0.341 > Vlogger Rhetoric variable
0.084 > 0.05 0.05. (X), which is 0.236 >
0.05
 RESULTS
THE MAJORITY OF RESPONDENTS
RESULTS OF RESPONDENTS ANSWER

Women (79.7%) VARIABEL RETORIKA FOOD

Came from Generation Z aged 16-24 years VLOGGER (X)
(73.1%). This was relevant to previous Paramita VARIABEL PENERIMAAN
& Irena (2020) research findings ETHOS FOLLOWERS (Y)
Lives in Jakarta (32.8%). 3.3675
TOTAL MEAN Latitude of
Completed their last education in SMA/SMK (Sangat Baik) PER DIMENSI Acceptance
(67.2%), and works as students (58.6%). LOGOS 3.183 TOTAL MEAN
Spend 2-4 hours playing TikTok per day (50.9%) (Sangat Baik) PER DIMENSI
3.326
and choose to like TikTok content other than (Sangat Baik)
culinary in the form of Comedy and Gaming. Latitude of
PATHOS Rejection
3.38 3.23
(Sangat Baik) (Sangat Baik)
 01 HASIL UJI KORELASI PEARSON

Interpretation of the Level of Correlation Coefficient:

0.00 – 0.199 : Very Low
0.20 – 0.399 : Low
0.40 – 0.599 : Medium
0.60 – 0.799 : Strong
0.80 – 1000 : Very Strong

(Source: Riyanto & Hatmawan, 2020)

 03 HASIL UJI REGRESI LINEAR
SEDERHANA
02 HASIL UJI HIPOTESIS

Y = a + bX
Followers Acceptance = 18,562 + 0,602 Rhetoric Food Vlogger

Ha: There is a significant effect between the rhetoric of food

vlogger Vinny Laurencia (@kulinersamacici) on the acceptance of The effect of variable X (Food Vlogger Rhetoric) on variable Y
followers on social media. (Followers Acceptance) is 45.4%. Therefore, the remaining 54.6% is

another factor that causes the creation of followers' acceptance.

01 DISCUSSION (1/2)
The rhetoric that occurs in online spaces can build
closeness and intimacy among existing communities
(Yonker, 2012; Su, 2019; Scaraboto & Pereira, 2013).
Influencers are made like avatars. (Silva et al., 2020)
Storytelling techniques can be used to build a good ethos.
(Ledbetter, 2018)
Pathos can also grow with existing credibility if it is built
with a good ethos.
The communicator's 'delivery' is the most crucial element
in message delivery.
 03 DISCUSSION (2/2)

OTHER FACTORS WHY MANY OF VINNY'S FOLLOWERS CHOOSE NOT TO VOTE THEIR
ATTITUDE IN THE REJECTION AREA?

The remaining 54,6% is another factor/variable that causes the influence of followers'
acceptance. Related to Ustaahmetoğlu (2020), new persuasion messages can contrast with
consumer attitudes when they contain sensitive and very high involvement related to religion,
family, and politics.
 CONCLUSION

RESEARCH
Demographic profile of followers from social media TikTok Vinny
@kulinersamacici with the majority of female respondents, Z generation
aged 16-24 years, live in Jakarta, last education in SMA/SMK, worked as
LIMITATIONS
students, spend as much as 2-4 hours per day playing TikTok, and
following TikTok content in the form of comedy and gaming.
This research have not discussed further about taking a
The contribution of rhetoric to the acceptance of followers can be said to non-commitment attitude.
be strong and positive at 45.4%.
The limitation of the platform is distributing questionnaires
The communicator's pathos has succeeded in being the rhetorical which cannot be done through TikTok directly.
dimension that has the most influence with total mean 3,38
THANK YOU!
Kezia Ester & Agustinus Rusdianto Berto