2. MASS MEDIA
Also known as the Multistep Flow
Model is a theory based on a 1940s
study on social influence that states
that media effects are indirectly
established through the personal
influence of opinion leaders. The
majority of people receive much of
their information and are
influenced by the media
secondhand, through the personal
influence of opinion leaders.
- Opinion leader
- Individuals in socials contact
with an Opinion leader
3. The Multistep Flow Model says that most
people form their opinions based on opinion
leaders that influence the media. Opinion
leaders are those initially exposed to a
specific media content, and who interpret it
based on their own opinion. They then begin
to infiltrate these opinions through the
general public who become "opinion
followers". These "opinion leaders" gain their
influence through more elite media as
opposed to mainstream mass media. In this
process, social influence is created and
adjusted by the ideals and opinions of each
specific "elite media" group, and by these
media group's opposing ideals and opinions
and in combination with popular mass media
sources. Therefore, the leading influence in
these opinions is primarily a social
persuasion.
4. The two-step flow of communication model hypothesizes that ideas flow from mass
media to opinion leaders, and from them to a wider population. It was first
introduced by sociologist Paul Lazarsfeld et al. in 1944 and elaborated by Elihu Katz
and Lazarsfeld in 1955 and subsequent publications.
5. According to Lazarsfeld and Katz, mass media information is channeled to the
"masses" through opinion leadership. The people with most access to media, and
having a more literate understanding of media content, explain and diffuse the
content to others.
6. Based on the two-step flow hypothesis, the term “personal influence” came to
illustrate the process intervening between the media’s direct message and the
audience’s reaction to that message. Opinion leaders tend to be similar to those
they influence—based on personality, interests, demographics, or socio-
economic factors. These leaders tend to influence others to change their
attitudes and behaviors. The two-step theory refined the ability to predict how
media messages influence audience behavior and explains why certain media
campaigns do not alter audiences’ attitudes. This hypothesis provided a basis
for the multi-step flow theory of mass communication.
7. The presidential election 1940 questioned as
to whether President Franklin Roosevelt
would seek his third term in office. Funded
by grants from the Rockefeller Foundation,
Life magazine, and the pollster Elmo Roper,
Columbia’s Office of Radio Research
conducted a new kind of study of voting. It
was based on a panel study of 2,400 voters
in Erie County, Ohio.
Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel
Gaudet supervised 15 interviewers, who
from May–October interviewed the
strategically selected 2,400 members of the
community several different times in order
to document their decision making process
during the campaign. They focused on what
factors would influence their decisions as the
campaign progressed.
8. The People’s Choice
The People’s Choice, a book based on this study
presented the theory of “the two-step flow of
communications,” which later came to be
associated with the so-called “limited effects
model” of mass media: the idea that ideas often
flow from radio and print to local “opinion leaders”
who in turn pass them on to those with more
limited political knowledge "opinion followers."
The conclusion of the research explained that
sometimes person to person communication can
be more effective than traditional media mediums
such as newspaper, TV, radio etc. This idea
developed further in the book Personal Influence.
