During our communications concepts two we
looked at certain persuasion techniques in the media. Different theories and
models have surfaced and I found a lot of these particularly interesting. One of which I thought to be a substantially
influential method called the two-step flow of communication (Sparks G.G., 2012).
I thought it was influential for its time, which was mainly around the Second
World War period as it involved a political leader manipulating the minds of
the general public and working class.
In its basic terms, Two-Step flow is the
relay of a message o a leader of power (Sparks G.G., 2012), then in its second
step that message is conveys through a mass media outlet such as radio or
television to the mass audience whom do not have access to mass media outlets.
This is also effective and takes place in modern day elections, except nowadays
the mass media outlet is still radio and TV but also the Internet (Sparks G.G.,
2012).
Two-Step flow has been likened too the
magic bullet theory which will be discussed and evaluated in the next blog.
Returning to Two-step flow theory it was first coined in 1955 by a sociologist
named Paul Lazarsfield. Lazarsfield was particularly interested in the direct
effect of this media technique. He stated that, even though it shared likeness,
it had a key difference regarding the magic bullet theory (Weimann G., 1994).
The difference was that instead of a mediated text or programming, Two-Step
Flow was directly a result of human agency (Weimann G.,1994). It was used to
give credibility to an opinion leader and gain the respect of their followers (Weimann
G., 1994).
References
Sparks G.G., 2012, Media Effects Research:
A Basic Overview, U.S: California,
Wadsworth Publishing.
Weimann G., 1994, The Influentials: People
Who Influence People, U.S: New York, State University of New York.
No comments:
Post a Comment