The two-step flow theory of Mass Media

You’re scrolling through your twitter feed and you see that one of your favorite actors Leonardo DiCaprio has tweeted a news story discussing the urgent need to reduce CO2 emissions in order to save the South Atlantic spotted flying polar bears. While this topic has never been of priority for you all of a sudden you start looking into ways you can help this cause. This example helps to reflect the “Two-step flow theory”.

The Two-Step Flow Theory

This theory suggest that most people form their opinions based on opinion leaders who in turn are influenced by the mass media. So in this situation Leonardo DiCaprio is the opinion leader who is influencing the masses but he would have first been influenced by the media himself.

How Does this affect me?

I never give to much thought about how I receive my news. If anything I would consider myself to be embarasingly unconnected to what is being said in the media. But is this truly the case? I would have used to think I was unaware of what was happening in the world because I didnt activly watch the news to stay up to date on my current events. However I do actively use social media and I am exposed to current events through this platform. So possibly I am more informed that what I would have previously believed myself to be. If information is being shared through these opinion leaders then I may not need to actually watch the news to get information about whats happening in the world.

The problem with this is that it can leave me more subseptible to believing whatever agenda that the opinion leader is trying to push. However because I tend to only follow people who I like on social media I typically have news sold to me that my values will align with.

Covid-19

Looking back on the last 14 months I can say with certainty that I never watched a single live broadcast about the Covid-19 pandemic yet I still was presented with so much information and opinions on the matter. From people advising us to stay home to others complaining that it was a made up ploy to try and control the people there was no escaping from the coverage. While trying to figure out what this all meant I personally found myself turning to my employer, Disney as the thought leader who I trusted to provide me with the information I needed.

Joe Rogan

One personal experience I wanted to talk about in relation to this topic is my dads connection to Joe Rogan. My dad has been listening to Joe Rogans podcast for many years now and he clearly views him as an opinion leader. It is to the point where he will even talk about different things that he has learned from Joe Rogan and reference this in conversation to me like it holds great weight. I personally don’t listen to Joe Rogan and I am a bit biased against him because I don’t see why he should be qualified to give this advice.

So what does it all mean

Overall I do believe that the Two-step flow theory holds a lot of validity in todays interconnected world. It may be a personal fallacy that I have an easier time of seeing this at play with other people than I do myself I am not naive to the fact that I am also being influenced by the people who I choose to follow. If nothing less this theory is much more relevant to myslef than the idea of the hypodermic needle, the idea that the media directly injects its message into the head of the masses, simply because I don’t find myself consuming traditional media.