“Ideas often flow from radio and print to opinion leaders and from them to the less active sections of the population.”
——Paul F. Lazarsfeld
If today’s world is a celebration of information, then the information people receive no longer comes directly from the “media” itself.
The “Two-Step Flow Theory” proposed by Lazarsfeld in the 1940s tells us that information doesn’t simply flow from the media to the public. Instead, it first goes through a layer of “opinion leaders”—the people you trust, admire, and follow. They understand the information, process it, and then tell it to you. Thus, it is not the news itself that influences your thoughts, but the person you believe.
In the era of social media, this phenomenon has become even more prominent.
Bloggers, video creators, social media influencers, and even friends around us have all become new “opinion leaders”.
As the scholar Henry Jenkins wrote in Textual Poachers (1992) — audiences are not just passive receivers of content, but active participants who co-create culture.
However, this kind of participation often also implies being guided by some kind of intangible force.
Take idol fan support as a typical example. A piece of news about an idol’s comeback or a birthday support event is often not organized by the idol themselves, but initiated by highly organized fan leaders and fan site masters within the fan community. They set up fundraising plans, assign tasks, and coordinate messaging so that all fans can express their support in an “organized” way. It may look like spontaneous passion, but behind it is a well-developed communication structure (Zuboff, 2019). This is exactly a modern version of the Two-Step Flow: information comes from the idol, is processed by opinion leaders, and finally becomes a large-scale, well-paced action.
But when “support data” and “spending numbers” become the standards for measuring love,
maybe we should stop and think:
- who is guiding this way of showing support?
- Who is turning fans’ feelings into something that can be measured and turned into business?
The Two-Step Flow Theory helps me see one fact: the ones who shape public opinion are those who tell the story in the middle. They make us believe, take action, spend money, and get involved. This is not necessarily a bad thing , because trust itself is the foundation of human connection.But, if we can be a bit more aware, we can enjoy being a fan while still keeping some freedom to think, so we won’t be completely swept away by public opinion and emotions.
References:
- Lazarsfeld, P. F., Berelson, B., & Gaudet, H. (1944). The People’s Choice. Columbia University Press.
- Jenkins, H. (1992). Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture. Routledge.
- Zuboff, S.（2019）. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power. PublicAffairs.
