News Dissemination or Pasta: How opinion leaders strain the news and give us what we want

Compared to the Hypodermic Needle Theory, the Two-Step Flow Theory is far more applicable to today’s news.

The latter theory states that news is distributed by not only the media, but by opinion leaders. These leaders can be celebrities, independent journalists, teachers or even some insightful old man at your local coffee shop. Opinion leaders are people that you trust.

Contrary to the Hypodermic Needle Theory (which states that information is disseminated to the masses and directly absorbed and understood the exact same way), the Two-Step Flow Theory states that information is initially received by these opinion leaders and is then siphoned through and sent to the masses.

The best analogy I can think of is making pasta. The mass media’s initial message consists of the cooked pasta AND the pasta water. The colander is an opinion leader that sorts out what they deem important information and then delivers what’s left to the masses for consumption.

The colander sorts out what is important and should be delivered to the masses which, in this instance, is the pasta (GIF courtesy of bitzngiggles.com).

While this isn’t the best analogy because colanders always deem the pasta to be the important aspect of the “total message”, it’s a simplified example of the function opinion leaders play.

These individuals control what they share and will have people that trust everything they say. My example from last week’s blogpost was football journalist Fabrizio Romano. Upon learning more about the Two-Step Flow Theory, I have reasons to believe he is more of an opinion leader.

Mr. Romano spends his days in constant contact with football directors, agents, players and news outlets both giving and receiving news regarding player transfers and contract negotiations. Linked below is a 10 minute video outlining a day in the life of Europe’s most reliable football journalist.

Video showcasing how Mr. Romano obtains newsworthy information and shares it with his audience (Video courtesy of Bleacher Report Football).

The reason I deem Mr. Romano more of an opinion leader rather than initial media source is because of his ability to control what is sent out to the masses. He receives transfer rumours, some of which are completely falsified, and will decide whether or not it’s worth tweeting about.

I personally believe I’m on the other side of the Two-Step Flow Theory. While people like Fabrizio Romano are online opinion leaders, I’m at the bottom of the chain as an online consumer.

I’m sure I have certain characteristics that would make me a small-scale opinion leader among those close to me however, in terms of social media, I rarely share much.

From a newsgathering perspective, my social media usage does adhere to the Two-Step Flow Theory. Sometimes I’ll read news straight from credible news outlets but besides that, I mostly read bits and pieces of the news from posts made by friends, family and celebrities that post online.

This shows that I’m an information follower when it comes to social media relating to the Two-Step Flow Theory. In-person, I have the credibility to be an opinion leader but that’s simply because of my willingness to engage in face-to-face discussion rather than sharing my thoughts and opinions online.

My position on the theory’s spectrum is the same as the vast majority of other people. There are more information followers than large-scale opinion leaders but what holds true is that everyone fits in somewhere within the theory’s dimensions. You’re either part of the news media, an opinion leader or an information follower.