Two-Step Flow Theory

To public relations practitioners, the two-step flow theory of communication highlights the importance of identifying and targeting opinion leaders when disseminating messages to audiences through traditional and new media.

In 1944, sociologists Paul F. Lazarsfeld, Bernard R. Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet published a now iconic paper titled The People's Choice, which analyzed voter decision making during President Franklin Roosevelt's 1940 reelection campaign. A major objective of the study was to explore media effects, particularly the emerging technology, television, on political campaign decision making. Study findings suggested that messages did not flow directly from mass media to target audiences, as previously assumed. Rather, media information first reached opinion leaders, who evaluated it and formed opinions that were then conveyed to others in their social circles through interpersonal channels. Only 5% of voters were swayed by direct exposure to media messages, the study found.

Based on the 1940 election campaign study, Elihu Katz and fellow scholar Lazarsfeld developed the two-step flow theory of communication, published in Personal Influence in 1955. Research by Katz and Lazarsfeld confirmed that face-to-face interactions with opinion leaders were more influential in shaping others’ views than mass media. Herbert Menzel, a pioneer in scientific communication, suggested that target audiences were confused by the flood of information transmitted by media on a daily basis, leading them to turn to knowledgeable peers for assistance in sifting through and interpreting media content. The notion that media messages had minimal direct influence on opinion formation became known as the limited effects paradigm.

By this analysis, opinion leaders became a key concept. Sociologists typically distinguish between two types of opinion leaders: those with formal authority, such as corporate executives and government officials, and those with informal influence over others in their sphere. A 1949 study by American sociologist Robert K. Merton showed that opinion leaders came from various social, economic and educational backgrounds, but shared the common characteristic of specialized interest and expertise on the topic under discussion. Lazarsfeld and colleagues also found that opinion leaders had greater access to sources of information outside their immediate circles, a disproportionate amount coming from mass media. Thus, opinion leaders did not replace media, but rather functioned as discussion guides and interpreters of media content.

Early work by Lazarsfeld and associates suggests several reasons why personal conversations with opinion leaders exert greater influence over opinion formation than mass media. The informal nature of face-to-face communication, as well as the ability to judge the expertise and trustworthiness of the communicator, can contribute to greater openness on the part of the recipient of communications. At the same time, personal contact provides opinion leaders with the opportunity to adjust to the receiver's personality, counter any resistance, and employ friendly persuasion to achieve the desired response.

Two-step flow studies conducted in the 1940s provided the basis for a number of recent theoretical developments. Communication scholars Hans-Bernd Brosius (1996) and Gabriel Weimann (1994) explained the setting of public agendas as a two-step flow, with influential individuals facilitating the flow of information between mass media and the public. Everett Rogers's 2003 theory of diffusion is also derived in part from the two-step flow concept, with the innovation behavior of near-peers influencing adoption of new ideas by other members of a social system. Although the two-step flow theory was rapidly adopted and continues to be highly influential, critics noted several shortcomings. Individuals can be opinion leaders on some topics, but not on others, as Werner J. Severin and James W. Tankard, Jr. (2001) pointed out. Otis Baskin, Craig Aronoff, and Dan Lattimore (1997) also criticized the two-step flow theory for being overly simplistic, in that it assumes that the flow of information is unidirectional, linear and limited to two levels: opinion leaders and followers.

...