Nowadays, with the progress of science and technology to promote the rapid development of the media industry, affecting society and people’s economic life. The application of the Internet is becoming more and more widespread, connecting people and the world closely. In this digital era of new media, everyone can be a communicator.TikTok has become a very typical Two Step Flow theory, these netizens lead the public’s aesthetics and preferences on the self-media app.
What is Two Step Flow theory？
In 1948, Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet, after studying the decision-making process of voters during the 1940 U.S. presidential election, they collected, interpreted, and disseminated the meaning of media messages to media consumers. “Opinion leaders” take information from the media and then communicate that information to a less active public. This means that most people get their information from opinion leaders through interpersonal communication rather than directly from the mass media.
Example: Influence of “Opinion leaders”
Celebrities and webloggers are often very important mediums for online media. They act as ‘opinion leaders’ for the online media, posting videos of their own views on events or of the items they want to sell, so that their followers can watch them and be allowed to express their own opinions. A phenomenon that has become very common in China in the last few years is live webcasting to sell goods.
Using the above YouTube video as an example, this woman is a well known person in the Chinese webcasting scene. She leads people to buy items through a series of talking points, product descriptions and hands-on experiences. Because she is well known, it makes the people watching feel that she is very credible, so the products she recommends must all be good goods. Moreover, the format is interactive, viewers can comment on the live broadcast, and then she will answer one by one the functions of the product and instructions for use.
REFERENCE
- Postelnicu, M. (2016). Two-step flow model of communication. In: Encyclopædia Britannica. [online] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/two-step-flow-model-of-communication.
- Media Studies. (2020). Two Step Flow Theory of Communication | Definition and Analysis. [online] Available at: https://media-studies.com/two-step-flow/.
This is a very good blog with clear ideas. It starts with a breakdown of the Two step flow and goes on to analyse it with a nice case study video. I like it and look forward to your future releases!
This is a very typical example of a modern online “opinion leader”. People don’t draw their information from the traditional mass media like they used to. More and more new opinion leaders are appearing in the public eye, such as webcasts, TV hosts, bloggers, etc. They filter and process information before disseminating it to the public. They filter and process information before disseminating it to the public. At the same time, the public now has more choices and space to think.