Two-step flow of communication

The fact that massive databases are being used to send tailor-made messages to individuals leads back to the idea of a "one-step flow of communication".

[10] The idea is a kind of Hypodermic needle / magic bullet model, with the capacity of big data analytics informed mass customization.

Empirical studies by other scholars, in contrast, have found that modern social media platforms, like Twitter, exhibit clear evidence of a two-step flow of communication.

He concluded that there is a multistep flow of information from the mass media to persons who serve as opinion leaders which then is passed on to the general public.

Katz and Lazarsfeld concluded that: "... the traditional image of the mass persuasion process must make room for 'people' as intervening factors between the stimuli of the media and resultant opinions, decisions, and actions.

Funded by grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, Life magazine, and the pollster Elmo Roper, Columbia's Office of Radio Research conducted a study of voting.

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, or "opinion followers."

In 1960, conclusions from Deutschmann and Danielson assert, "we would urge that the Katz-Lazarsfeld two-stage flow hypothesis, as a description of the initial information process, be applied to mass communication with caution".

[18] Everett Rogers' "Diffusion of Innovations" cites one study in which two-thirds of respondents accredited their awareness to the mass media rather than face-to-face communication.

[19][20] However, Lazarsfeld's two-step hypothesis is an adequate description to understand the media's influence on belief and behavior.

Troldahl finds that media exposure is a first step to introduce discussion, at which point opinion leaders initiate the second-step flow.

[21] According to Hilbert today's digital media landscape simultaneously facilitate one-step, two-step and more complex multi-step flow models of communication.

[11] For example, in Twitter networks it is no contradiction that average Twitter users mainly mention intermediating opinion leaders in their tweets (two-step flow), while at the same time traditional mass media outlets receive 80-90 % of their mentions directly through a direct one-step flow from the same users.