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Chapter 9
Personal Influence:
The Two-Step Flow of Communication
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Historical background
Status of media effects research and theory in1940s and 1950sControversies increased regarding the effects of
the media on both society and the humancondition.
Researchers were forced to reassess theproblem that the effects of the mediabothgood and badsimply did not seem to be there.
The research community believed that ahypothesis of minimal effects was closer toreality and paid attention to the more subtle andindirect influences of mass communication.
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Historical background (cont)
The two-step flow theory presumed a movementof information through interpersonal networks,from the media to people and from there to other
people, rather than directly from media to mass.The Role of People in Mass Communication
EffectsSmall-groups research
Primary groupsNature vs. nurture
Social reality and meaning theory
Reference group
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Overview of the Decatur Study
This study was actually a follow-up of the
research in chapter 4.
The research was actually planned in 1944, andits field work was started in Decatur in 1945.
Its findings were published in 1955 by Elihu
Katz and Paul F. Lazarsfeld in their book
Personal Influence: The Part Played by Peoplein the Flow of Mass Communication.
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Overview of the Decatur Study (cont)
The research was conducted under the
auspices of the Bureau of Applied Social
Research of Columbia University. Financial
support for the project was supplied by
Mcfadden Publications, Inc. and the Roper
polling organizations.
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Decatur Study Design
Purpose
--the researchers wanted to study opinion
leaders who were in actual contact with
recipients of their influence on a day-to-day basis (informal personal influence).
Four areas of influenceMarketing (food & household items)
Fashion (clothing, hair style, cosmetics)
Public affairs (political and social issues)
Movies
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Examining Personal Influence
Four strategies to identify influentials
generally influential
specific influentials
everyday contacts self-designation
Other influences?
Although people were affected by other sources of
influences such as media advertising and salesmen,the opinion leaders were one of the more powerful
influences on peoples decision in the marketplace of
either consumer products and services or of ideas.
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The characteristics of opinion leaders
Framework for describing opinion leaders
Position on the life cycle
Position on the communitys socioeconomic l
The extent of the individuals social contacts (
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Who were the most influential
opinion leaders?
In marketing
In fashion
In public affairsFor movies
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Conclusions and implications
In spite of limitations, the Decatur study
represents a pivotal point of redirection. It
tried to explore the part played by people in
the social flow of information and influence
from media to mass.
It represented the first clear and intensive
focus on social relationship and their role in
the mass communication process.
It identified the meaning functions of primary
groups, an idea that is important part of the
meaning theory of mass media portrayals.
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Conclusions and implications
The Decatur study, and the two-step flow idea
generally, set off significant new directions of
research in the adoption of innovation, the
diffusion of the news, and the study ofdistortions in interpersonal communication.
The study not only failed to confirm the validity
of the idea that mass communications should be
feared, it went a long way toward making theidea look unrealistic.
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Marketing leaders
Personal influence in marketing appears to
take place horizontally, in other words,
between people at the same general status
level.Large-family wives would be most thought
for advice.
The women with more social contacts were
the most influential in marketing.
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Fashion leaders
It was the girls who provided the greatest
amount of influence.
The socially active have more opportunities tooffer advice to a broader range of recipients.
Status made some difference, if one was low
in this factor.
In general, it was the young, socially activewomen with middle or high status that had the
most influence.Exit
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Public affairs leaders
The public affairs arena is one in which men playan important role in influencing opinion andattitudes. Those women who were opinion leaders
tended to be concentrated in the high status level.The women with more social contacts were
influential than those who are less gregarious.
There was a rather weak association between life-
cycle stage and public opinion affairs leadership.Generally, the most influential women were thebetter educated and more affluent, who had manysocial contacts. Exit
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Movie selection leaders
It is dependent most of all on life-cycle position.
Gregariousness and socioeconomic status
made little difference.
In summary, moviegoing in Decatur was an
important part of the youth culture. At all status
levels and among shy as well as socially active
people, it was the young single individuals whogave the most advice.
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The life cycle
Position in the life cycle raises the probability of being
knowledgeable about some topics but not others.
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SES
Personal influence may travel up, down, or
laterally among the community social strata.
Three categories-high, middle, and low
status-were determined on the basis of years
of education and amount of rent paid.
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social contacts
The one who regularly interacts with many people
will have more opportunities to serve as an
opinion leader.
Index of gregariousness
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Group category
Primary groups
- group of limited size, whose members know
and have direct relationships with each other.
Secondary group
- group of large size, whose members interact
on a less personal level than in a primary
group, and their relationships are temporaryrather than long lasting.
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Nature vs. nurtureThe famous nature versus nurture debates
sought to settle whether personality wasmainly a product of inherited factors or washeavily influenced by learning in social
settings.The influence of learning from social and
cultural sources became correspondinglymore predominant in theories of human
socialization.Primary social relationships were a
significant factor in the way people behaved(the Hawthorne studies). Exit