Media is shaping power: use media theory to understand the contemporary socialisation and communication ecology
The core of media theory – media shaping information – reveals the reason why today’s media is…
Medium Theory: How it’s changed through social media
The Medium Theory was developed by Marshall McLuhan. The idea behind this theory is primarily based on…
Becoming the Self We Perform
This blog explores how Goffman’s idea of social life as a stage applies to the digital age. Through personal reflection and the case of Douyin creator Daydreamer, it considers how we shape, perform and ultimately become the selves we present online.
We Don’t Just Use Media ， We Become It
Explain McLuhan’s “The medium is the message” in an animated form. Today, we often attribute media problems…
Performing the Self in a Digital World
When I scroll through Instagram, I’m never just sharing a photo, I’m performing. Every caption, filter and…
Construction of Identity in a Digital World
In today’s digital age, identity is no longer a fixed or stable concept but rather a continuous…
Media Theory: The Invisible Translator Between Us and the World
Introduction: Sometimes I realize that my first look in the morning is not at the sun, but…
Two-step flow theory in the age of social media
When the Two-Step Flow Theory was first introduced in the 1940s, the presence of opinion leaders was…
Who Am I Online? Digital Identity, Gender, and the Persistence of the Male Gaze
In today’s media-saturated world, our identities are no longer confined to the physical realm. Every post, story,…
Adorno’s Warning in the Age of Streaming: The Culture Industry and the Illusion of Choice 💡
As mass media grew in popularity in the 1940s, Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer warned that…
The Culture Industry: How Media Shapes Our Everyday Life
The idea of the Culture Industry was first developed by two German philosophers, Theodor Adorno and Max…
TWO-STEP FLOW THEORY AND THE CONTROL BEHIND IDOL SUPPORT
“Ideas often flow from radio and print to opinion leaders and from them to the less active…
Mass Production of Art: Rethinking Adorno and Horkheimer in the Modern Digital Age
In a time of algorithmic playlists, viral moments, and TV like interactive content, creativity seems like the…
The Two-Step Flow Theory: How KOLs Shape Our World Today
In the age of social media, we often assume we’re directly bombarded with information—from news headlines to…
Two-Step Flow Theory – The Modern Political TikTok Era
In today’s modern mass media, the influence of political figures, people of fame, and even TikTok influencers…
Who Leads the Talk? Two – Step Flow and Opinion Leaders
Introduction In 1940, Lazarsfeld studied the U.S. Erie County presidential election and found the public wasn’t directly…
The Two-Step Flow Theory in the Age of Digital Capitalism
The Two-Step Flow Theory, developed by Paul Lazarsfeld and Elihu Katz in the mid-twentieth century, transformed understandings of media influence by proposing…
The Manufactured Culture: Are We Really Choosing Freely?
In the digital age, we interact with “culture” every day.From short videos to streaming media, from trendy…
The Algorithmic Culture Industry
Every time I open Instagram or TikTok, it feels like the feed was perfectly designed for me….
The Culture Industry
Last week in classes, we deep into a particular concept that I believe everyone knew, but in…
The Labubu Craze under the Two-Step Flow Theory: Who’s Really Guiding our Shopping Habits?
What made the quirky toy Labubu a global obsession? This blog will explore how influencers and algorithms together exemplify the classic Two-Step Flow Theory, and quietly guide our “personal” choices.
The Culture Industry: For the People?
In today’s society, it is not unreasonable to say that many (perhaps most) people feel rather powerless….
Your “Following List” Is the New Opinion Leader: The Two-Step Flow Theory in Today’s World
Start with a question: which of the things you bought recently did you buy because you saw…