The two-step flow is a media and sociology theory that states that media messages can influence the public through opinion leaders. Its relevance today is that influencers on platforms like TikTok post about their own opinions on topics they want to talk about, such as politics, Fashion, and other people and their reactions to events, for example, in sports.
The two-step flow theory was developed by Paul Lazarsfeld and Elihu Katz to explain how media messages can influence people’s opinion and attitudes through opinion leaders. The theory explains that messages flow from the media to the opinion leader, who then passes on the information to the wider population and gives their own opinion through communication; this is where the wider audience will be influenced by what the influencer is saying because more of the audience will trust the opinion leader they follow rather than directly through the media. We can use this in today’s world, where you have the news and TikTok influencers: the news tells you something, but you won’t believe it until a person you follow on TikTok says the same thing as the news, and then they will put their own opinion with it. The wider audience will trust that and agree with the influencer..
Although the two-step flow theory is useful, in modern times there is a limitation because, with TikTok, there is an algorithm that recommends to users what they are interested in, so you don’t like to look at a whole genre on everything, so if an audience likes sports, then the content they will be seeing is only sports. There are different opinions on sports like football, for example, about whether a manager will get sacked. Still, because the algorithm is the same, the audience will get 2 opinions. Then they won’t be able to decide what they agree and disagree with from their influencers, who think 2 different opinions but on the other hand the audience may not agree on what the influencer is saying as that can cause limitation aswell so they may question their opinion or seek other perspectives.
Overall, I believe that the two-step flow theory is useful for understanding the media today because you will have a wider audience who don’t believe the news at all and with the help of opinion leaders like TikTok influencers, they can persuade their audience to believe their opinion and what they think, which will bring the audience more to agree rather than looking at direct media, which won’t make the wider population understand the media. So, using the two-step flow theory, the media today can persuade the wider population to agree with their views through opinion leaders.
Katz, E. and Lazarsfeld, P.F. (1955) Personal Influence: The Part Played by People in the Flow of Mass Communications. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.
