![]() ![]() With the recent emergence of punditry-based public affairs programming, the mass media itself appears in the role of a message mediator rather than a message sender.ĭiana Mutz (1998) proposed another theoretical challenge to the two-step process. With a plethora of channels for delivering news and political messages outside the control and mediation of the mass media, candidates, parties, officeholders, government agencies, and interest groups are often original, exogenous sources for public affairs information and opinion, communicating directly with members of the general public through live video feeds, Internet connections, and interactive cell phone applications. The lack of evidence also led Bennett and Manheim (2006) to conclude that mass media has direct rather than mediated effects on its audiences, a conclusion that reverberates in the fragmented media marketplace of the early twenty-first century. Not only were there horizontal cross flows of information and discussion, in some cases evidence supported a direct one-step communication of information from the mass media to non-discussant audiences. ![]() This lack of empirical evidence led Robinson (1976) to point out that the hierarchal downward flow of information in the two-step model did not reflect research findings that opinion leaders were often engaging in discussions among themselves. First, from its formulation, there was little empirical evidence supporting personal contact as the major step in the transmission of ideas and opinion about public affairs ( Gitlin, 1978). The two-step flow model has been criticized from several angles. Opinion leaders absorb the messages from the mass media, recast and reinterpret the messages, and through personal connections, pass them along to an audience that is often distracted, unaware, or uninterested in political matters. However, rather than being directly received by an audience of individuals who are attentive, the messages are received by a layer of opinion leaders who are interested and engaged in public affairs. The two-step flow of communication begins with messages disseminated through the mass media. In response, Katz and Lazarsfeld (1955) developed a new model of a two-step flow of communication to emphasize the importance of interpersonal communications. Similar findings in a 1948 study of Elmira, New York, during the 1948 presidential campaign ( Berelson et al., 1954) dented the idea that media coverage of presidential campaigns could persuade large numbers of voters. found that the changes had far less to do with campaign news and campaign communications than it had to do with the influence of family and friends. (1944) questioned a panel of respondents seven times, finding that only a few voters changed their minds during the campaign. In their study of Erie County, Ohio, in the 1940 presidential election, Lazarsfeld et al. The problems with that model were revealed by a series of elections studies conducted by the Columbia sociologists working with Paul Lazarsfeld. Walt Borges, in International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (Second Edition), 2015 Mass Media and the Flow of Information Nevertheless, the paradigm’s ‘fight for survival,’ through a dynamic exchange of arguments, criticism, response, and debate, resulted in several modifications of the original model. However, the concept has been a subject of growing criticism, leading to a decline in the popularity and attraction of the original concept and almost to its total collapse. Since the introduction of the two-step flow model and the opinion leadership concept, numerous studies have sought to advance both the understanding and applicability of these ideas to various areas from marketing and consumer behavior, to fashion, politics, and scientific innovations. The concept of the ‘ two-step flow of communication’ suggests that the flow of information and influence from the mass media to their audiences involves two steps: from the media to certain individuals (i.e., the opinion leaders) and from them to the public. Gabriel Weimann, in International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (Second Edition), 2015 Abstract
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