- WHAT?
A theory that media effect is indirectly established through the personal influence of opinion leaders. This theory was first introduced by sociologist Paul Lazarsfeld et al. in 1944.
Most people get a lot of information through the personal influence of opinion leaders and are indirectly influenced by the mass media.
- HOW?
From the media to interested individuals and from them to family, friends and acquaintances.
Through primary communication, opinion leaders process the collected information (such as screening out the information that they are not interested in or disagree with), and then carry out secondary communication through media and pass it on to others.
- WHY？
Opinion leaders are those who are initially exposed to certain media content and interpret it according to their own views, and possess high social persuasiveness.
Two step flow theory in network broadcast
The man on the left is a famous social media influencer, Jiaqi Li, also known as “Lipstick Brother No 1”, and we can clearly see hundreds of lipsticks on display behind him. He chooses the products, and then makes an announcement on social media. He broadcasts the products he thinks are good to use on Chinese Tiktok streaming online. Due to his high social persuasion, most girls will buy the products in his live broadcast room.
In this process, Jiaqi Li is the first opinion leader who screens excellent products; At the same time, after he made the forecast, some people who thought the quality of the products in the forecast would become new opinion leaders and inform their good friends to carry out information transmission.
“Does the product he chooses have to be good?”
Due to the fact that this theory has a strong personal impact and human agency. It is quite hard to make sure that the information that public receive at final is correct. Just like that we don’t know whether he took money from a brand to advertise for that brand?
And with the development of the Internet, some things will become uncontrollable and even more dangerous after fermentation on the Internet.
When there are some emergencies in the society, there will always be people with different opinions, and it is inevitable that some ideas harmful to the country and society will come into being. At this time, if he is an opinion leader, it will have a negative impact on the society.
When events are not fully investigated, people will always unconsciously assume and guess, and some people even want to believe what they want to believe, or even fabricate facts. If such people become opinion leaders, people will rise up and attack online against their so-called suspects. Unfortunately, this kind of events is not uncommon.
Each coin has two sides
Obviously, this theory has evolved into various forms through the media. It’s even more diverse because of the web’s mesh structure. All in all, when information is disseminated, it is more targeted and faster. However, whether it is simple secondary communication (word of mouth) or through media carriers, opinion leaders are crucial. In the follow-up process of media communication, I think we should pay more attention to opinion leaders, so as to further control the development of information, so as to avoid some unnecessary troubles.
References :
Lazarsfeld, P. F., Berelson, B., & Gaudet, H. (1968). The people’s choice. Columbia University Press.
Lazarsfeld and Katz (1955) Two-step flow of communication model. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-step_flow_of_communication#:~:text
