The Two Step Flow Theory by Elihu Katz & Paul F. Lazarsfeld

TWO STEP FLOW THEORY

The two-step flow is a theory within communication which was touched by Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet which is available in the book “The People's Choice”, it was written in 1944 a study which looked on the process of decision-making during a Presidential election campaign. They looked at empirical support for the direct influence of media messages on voting. What they were to discover, was that informal and personal contacts were mentioned far more frequently than the exposure to radio or newspaper as sources of influence on voting behavior. With this, Katz and Lazarsfeld developed the two-step flow theory of mass communication.

[1]To Investigate this problem, Particular attention was paid to those people who changed their vote intention during the course of the campaign. When these people were asked what had contributed to their decision, their answer was: other people.

There theory found that information from the media moves in two distinct stages. First being the individuals also known as the opinion leaders who give their close attention to the mass media and its messages received from the information. These opinion leaders passed on their own interpretations in as well as the actual media content its self.

[2]The term ‘personal influence’ was coined to refer to the process intervening between the media’s direct message and the audience’s ultimate reaction to that message. Opinion leaders are influential that they get people to change their attitudes and behaviors they are quite similar to those they influence.

The two-step flow theory has improved the understanding of how mass media can influence the decision-making. The theory has given the ability to predict the influence of media messages on an audience’s behavior. It has helped explain why certain media campaigns may have failed to change an audience attitudes as well as their behavior.

These “opinion leaders” as they were dubbed were not at all identical with those who are thought of traditionally as the wielder of influence.

---

[1] Elihu Katz & Paul F. Lazarsfeld (1955). Personal Influence . 3rd ed. U.S.A: Transaction Publishers. 32-34.

[2] ?. (?). TWO STEP FLOW THEORY. Available: http://www.cw.utwente.nl/theorieenoverzicht/Levels%20of%20theories/macro/Two-Step%20Flow%20Theory.doc/. Last accessed 27 February 2010.