Two Step Flow &
Three Step Flow

Year: 1948

Theorist: Paul F Lazarsfeld

Background: In 1948, Paul F Lazarsfeld wrote ‘The People’s Choice’ which summarised his research into the November 1940 presidential election. In the course of his research, Lazarsfeld discovered that people were more likely to be influenced by their peers than the mass media.

Lazarsfeld called these people ‘opinion leaders’. The Two Step Flow Theory suggests that opinion leaders are active audiences who pay close attention to the mass media and pass on their interpretation of media messages to others. The Two Step Flow Theory maintains that some audiences are active participants, but much of the general audience are passive in the communication process.

Issues: are there only ‘two steps’ of flow in communications?

Three Step Flow/Multi Step Flow: In 2009 a theorist called Klaus Bruhn Jensen updated this model and proposed 'Three Step' or 'Multi-step flow'. With digital and mobile media, communication can be seen to flow in multiple steps and directions across a growing range of technological platforms, if still anchored in humans as embodied communicators.

Key terms:

Opinion leader: a person whose opinions about something such as a product or issue have a big influence on the opinions of others
Active audience: An active audience engages, interprets and responds to a media text in different ways and is capable of challenging the ideas encoded in it

Level of power attributed to the media: ★☆/★★★