Analyzing why “Liu Genghong” became popular from the perspective of two-step flow communication theory?

   20 October 2023  2 Comments on Analyzing why “Liu Genghong” became popular from the perspective of two-step flow communication theory?  Posted in 1. ‘Two Step Flow theory’ Or ‘Culture Industry’

Analyzing why “Liu Genghong” became popular from the perspective of two-step flow communication theory?

Xinru Cheng/Eliza

10.20 5min

BACKGROUND

During the epidemic, the “Liu Genghong fitness exercise”(WHAT’ON WEIBO,2022)on Chinese TikTok platform was so hot, to what extent was it hot? During the period of control and closure of people in the community building WeChat group of white-collar workers, housewives, retired elderly people all meet together to dance this exercise. During the sealing control in Shanghai, it became the simplest form of entertainment.

CASE STUDY

1. Environmental factors:

The epidemic home environment. many areas are in a state of prevention and control (such as Shanghai), offline fitness places closed, home fitness-related topics easy to resonate.

2. Human factors

  • Celebrity aura: Liu Genghong is the most knowledgeable about fitness in the entertainment circle, and is also the closest person in the fitness circle to the stars
  • Professional strength: he has professional fitness skills reserves, I talkative and interesting, variety atmosphere pull full, strong sense of interaction
  • Fan culture: Jay Chou’s (wikipedia,2023)familiar songs, boosting Liu Genghong cloud fitness modal dissemination (segments, terriers, emoticons)

  • Label variety: compared to other fitness bloggers, Liu Genghong’s live video content is not only fitness, but also family, husband and wife, parent-child relationship, etc., watchability and acceptance is higher

  • Husband and wife persona: “one strong, one weak”, strong sense of contrast. Catering to the mindset of fitness novices, easy to resonate and sense of agency

  • Fan culture: Jay Chou’s (wikipedia,2023)familiar songs, boosting Liu Genghong cloud fitness modal dissemination (segments, terriers, emoticons)

  • Opinion Leaders: celebrity interactions, celebrity retweets and imitations reinforce the influence of Liu Genghong’s fitness exercises

    • Shanghai during the epidemic

    3. psychological factors

    • Epidemic: Fitness has become an important outlet for releasing negative emotions and maintaining healthy habits, triggering a national fitness frenzy
    • Emotional relief: The Shanghai epidemic is a huge black hole of traffic, and the explosion of negative information for a long time requires large-scale collective carnival-style entertainment to decompress.
    • Audience level: the experience of online celebrity personal trainers, with strong participation and interaction, provides great emotional value.

  • Audience level: the experience of online celebrity personal trainers, with strong participation and interaction, provides great emotional value.

  • Symbolism level: Liu Xiaohong’s fitness exercises, pointing to a healthy and happy lifestyleSense of ritual: fixed-time live broadcasting, allowing the audience to ritualize and program squatting, more companionable than recorded broadcasting

    • SUMMARIZATION AND REFLECTION

    First, most news stories are still directly transmitted by the mass media. theory of two-step flow of communication ignores the obvious fact that much information has only one-step of dissemination, and a great deal of its information actually flows directly from the mass media to the public without having to go through opinion leaders.

    Second, the emergence of pseudo-opinion leaders. If an opinion leader does not re-disseminate information to the general audience, he is merely the owner of the information and not an opinion leader in the true sense of the word. Another communicator who utilizes the trust of the audience in exchange for benefits is called pseudo-opinion leader.  

    Third, information asymmetry  two-step flow of communication. After receiving information from mass media sources, opinion leaders’ subjective judgment will affect the screening of information, and the second-passed information after adding subjective color may deviate from the original intention of mass media.

    In the new media environment two-step flow of communication has a new change. Due to the diversification of online information sources, most often the information reaches the audience directly from the media, and the main responsibility of opinion leaders has changed to expressing opinions and conveying views. In the field of online marketing, online opinion leaders are the core and key, they utilize their influence and attention, through personal experience, endorsement ads, etc., to make persuasive amenities to their own fans, and transfer the public’s attention to their endorsed goods in order to promote sales.

    REFERENCE

    2 thoughts on “Analyzing why “Liu Genghong” became popular from the perspective of two-step flow communication theory?”

    1. The case analysis is very accurate and I have a great impression on the media.Because the epidemic has guided a lot of things, reflecting the two-step process of circulating information

    2. LIU did literally pop up on the internet in China during the epidemic! Exercising with him seemed to be the choice of most people. I agree with your view on opinion leaders, Jay Chou and many other celebrities who promote him as opinion leaders, directly or indirectly, make the message of “Exercise with LIU” to be more popularly conveyed. Yet, this promotion may mixed with personal feelings, e.g. they are friends of LIU. We should indeed ponder as we receive information whether opinion leaders convey information to us with some bias towards their personal views.

    Leave a Reply