Welcome to my blog, my favorite influencer. Yes, I said it. Like it or not, according to the two-step flow theory, you are an influencer. Now, if you’re looking to get paid or get free swag from this gig, I’m not sure I can help you. If you’re looking to find out how you became an influencer without even trying, well then you found the right place. Let’s talk about your journey to becoming an influencer, also known as the ‘two-step flow theory’.
I don’t even know what the two-step flow theory is!
Let me explain to you the idea of the two-step flow theory. Way back in the 1940's, Paul Lazarsfeld, sociologist, and author of ‘The People’s Choice’, along wtih some colleagues, studied the presidential election and how people determined which candidate they would vote for. Lazarsfeld hypothesized that the mass media wasn’t directly impacting the general public, but instead there were middlemen known as ‘opinion leaders’ that would grab ahold of what the media said and subsequently disseminate their interpretation of that message.
What does this have to do with me?
Okay, so we know the two-step flow theory states that the mass media is presenting information and that our influencers or ‘opinion leaders’ are absorbing that information. Now, the opinion leader part is where most of us come in. You see, the opinion leaders are defined as a person who ‘gives details and information to lesser active persons in their group’. So, if you’re a person who is really into politics, there is a good chance you are following politics through mass media channels, pulling out the information you feel is ‘newsworthy’. A close friend of yours that might know you’re into politics and has established trust with you might ask if you know anything about the latest bill on the senate floor and voila! You are now an opinion leader, or in modern day cooler social media terms, an influencer. It doesn’t stop there though, while your friend is turning to you for information, 18% of U.S. adults say they turn most to social media for political and election news. See how this is working? Check out this quick video by Jan Splaining for a creative explanation!
What does this mean about the validity of information we receive?
I’m glad you asked, err..I asked on your behalf. My opinion of the two-step flow theory is that it’s a fancy name for the super fun game of ‘telephone’ we played back in the 90’s. You know the game, right? One person starts the game by whispering a sentence into someone’s ear, and that person then says it to the next person, and then that person says it to the next person, and so on. And suddenly “My Mom’s name is Fran” turns into “You dog’s friend likes toast….with jam?!” It doesn’t mean the person who is telling you the information is lying, they are telling you what they heard, but we will never know if that’s what was said.
Can you think of a time where your opinion was swayed based on having a constructive and informative conversation with a friend or family member?
