Through his research, Lazarfeld found that people tend to spread information through two stages: mass communication – opinion leaders – the public.
At first this was a difficult process to understand. But in social media you can really feel the actual effect of the Two Step Flow theory.
In my opinion, it is easier for the audience to receive the message through opinion leaders. There are many examples of using Two Step Flow theory to generate more feedback from the public, and there are many examples of using social media for secondary communication in real life.
I’ll start with three sections to better understand secondary communication theory
PART 1
In China, every once in a while there will be a popular phrase on the Internet, these popular phrase are usually created by netizens, and then they are used by influential netizens to expose them to the public, and finally circulated among the public.
The spreading speed brought about by these Two Step Flow theory is very fast, and they are also able to enrich people’s entertainment life to a certain extent. But some inappropriate online terms, such as discrimination against the gay community and racial discrimination, are not a good thing if they are circulated.
This requires everyone to raise their sense of responsibility, and opinion leaders with a certain degree of influence should be more likely to screen whether everything on social media is worth spreading.
PART 2
With the development of the Internet, there are more and more social media platforms and at the same time, the platforms are more and more well-built. In the era of prevalent social media platforms, information can be delivered to a large group of users through YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and other platforms.
News and livelihoods will be spread across all major social media, which is also one of the phenomena of secondary communication. A while ago a news story about bed bugs in London created a panic on social media.
This propagation phenomenon follows the Two Step Flow theory.
The advantage of secondary communication is that information is exchanged quickly and spreads rapidly, allowing the public to receive information quickly.
However, if the public does not truly understand the cause of each event, it can lead to meaningless arguments or create panic on social media in the face of a certain event.
With this secondary communication, the public should do their part and take a critical look at what is happening and how it is being communicated.
PART 3
The use of the Two Step Flow theory by internet celebrities and personalities brings a certain amount of influence and benefit to an industry or field. The spokespersons of the major brands in the video act as opinion leaders in the Two Step Flow theory, bringing additional benefits to the respective industries they represent.
With celebrity communication, brands increase awareness, build brand image and reduce communication costs. The use of celebrities can better maximise the benefits of the Two Step Flow theory, but at the same time, a good opinion leader can also move the industry in a positive direction, so a good opinion leader is particularly important.
Here are my thoughts on the future of Two Step Flow theory
- Combined with modern society, the emergence of various artificial intelligence technologies may have a certain impact on secondary communication.
- The development of Internet technology has led to a radical change in the media of communication, and people are no longer keen on newspapers and broadcasting, but rather use faster and more convenient methods to obtain information.
- AR technology may allow the audience to see the information more intuitively, and in recent years, virtual reality technology has been improved, and the audience can experience the information in a more immersive way, which may have a different impact on secondary communication.
Perhaps in the future, people will be able to socialise virtually through AR ……..
There was an episode of acclaimed Netflix series Black Mirror where the use of AR technology allowed everyone to rate everyone else arbitrarily, The episode revolves around the future of technology, where everyone you meet can be rated and your ratings represent class and status, and you can erase people you don’t like from your life and that person is mosaicked, in a film that simulates a mature era of virtual reality development.
This film is a great example of what the development of virtual technology will do to Two Step Flow theory.
Not only entertainment, but also in real life there are a lot of use of AR technology for false propaganda, false advertising to deceive consumers, harming the rights and interests of consumers while also affecting the dissemination of information.
How will people communicate effectively in the virtual world and how will we recognise it? This is a point that got me into thinking.
Nowadays, there is a very hot AI face-swapping on the Internet, where users import their photos into an app, select filters and different styles of AI characters will appear, thus attracting users and stimulating secondary communication.
But is this really safe? While virtual technology has become more sophisticated, it also triggers more criminals to use virtual reality technology to commit crimes. The use of AR to extract users’ facial information, fake users’ identities to carry out fraud is endless, and there is also the use of virtual reality technology to generate a non-existent photo, spoofing or intentionally causing panic, all belong to an uncontrollable factor in the secondary dissemination.
The virtual nature of AR technology plays a role in two levels of communication.
Perhaps at some point in the future, when AR technology matures, communication will change radically again.
bibliography：
Hilbert, Martin; Vásquez, Javier; Halpern, Daniel; Valenzuela, Sebastián; Arriagada, Eduardo. One Step, Two Step, Network Step? Complementary Perspectives on Communication Flows in Twittered Citizen Protests
Choi, Sujin. The Two-Step Flow of Communication in Twitter-Based Public Forums. Social Science Computer Review. December 2015, 33 (6): 696–711. S2CID 61637178
Stansberry, Kathleen. One-Step, Two-Step, or Multi-Step Flow: The Role of Influencers in Information Processing and Dissemination in Online, Interest-Based Publics (学位论文). 2012. hdl:1794/12416 
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