Two Step Flow Theory


The theory suggests that the information given through media texts doesn't flow directly from the text into minds of it's audience which is unmediated. it is filtered through opinion leaders and then it is communicated towards us via the media from the opinion leaders. The theory suggests that in 1940 paul lazarsfeld, bernard berclson and hazel gaudat conducted first full scale investigations of mass communications. The two step flow suggests that information doesn't flow from the media text straight to the audience but, within that cycle, other people tend to have point of views that affect the audience. Certain people have a large influence on how people gain opinions about specific media texts like films, instead of the actual film giving them a related opnion once they have gathered one from what they've been told.  For example, if someone was talking about the batman films and said that they were amazing. where as other will go and watch the film and have the same opinion. that is only becasue of the content in which iss received because the two step flow has affected them.

Criticism- graphic representations of the theory suggests that media messages reach opinion leaders first andf then it is passed on to the followers. the notion opinion leaders have certain characteristics make the opinion leader but it is not needed. this all depends on the subject matter. No opinion leader was an opinion leader in all aspects of life.

Katy perry - Waking up in vegas http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-pUaogoX5o

In this video the two step flow is shown via the girl being portrayed as a person who is broke and then plays a machine and the wins that become rich straight away. She is dressed in red and a bit revealing as she is shown to be she is shown to be not so innocent and people then tend to feel that she is vulnerable but she aint. if i was an opinion leader then i would say she is so not wearing the right clothes because she is degrading the female body as some people look at her as inspiration and a model.

links :
http://www.cultsock.org/index.php?page=media/kl.html
Opinion leadership is a concept that arises out of the theory of two-step flow of communication propounded by Paul Lazarsfeld and Elihu Katz. This theory is one of several models that try to explain the diffusion of innovations, ideas, or commercial products.