Implementation of Two-step Flow Theory in Modern Day

Since the 1940s, the story line of the historical backdrop of media research has acknowledged the constrained media effects theories, despite the fact that it never got on with the individuals who really work in and around media, marketing and publicizing. They "reflexively" acknowledge the old convention of a powerful media, saying, "Our programs and advertisements," we believe, "produce individuals' opinions and it's a fundamental profoundly held by marketing specialists also, anchormen alike."[i] Ironically, the true power of media by means of networking may now be strengthened by a reevaluation of the two-stage flow theory. In our society individuals tend to use distinctive techniques or sources to get decisions and settle on choices about different issues in their lives. Some of those issues might be close to home while others might be political.  While some individual may look for information from the mass media, institutions, experts, for example, doctors, many reviews have demonstrated that an expansive number of people get medical and political information through interpersonal providers. These include individual experiences, information from relatives, friends, partners, neighbors and so forth. As indicated by Katz Lazersfeld (1957) People's inclination to look for guidance from these sources as their first alternative rather than print and electronic media possibly portrayed as the "two stage theory". Friends, relatives, partners and other individuals who people swing to for information when making individual, political or other critical choices that influence their lives may likewise be portrayed as "opinion leaders" as per Katz Lazersfeld. "Opinion Leaders" tend to impact people's basic leadership and are seen by the people as knowledgeable and reliable sources of information.

The age of social networking represented by Facebook, MySpace and YouTube and also the interactive capacity of the different web engines, similar to Google and Yahoo!, is not in a general sense diverse from the conventional interaction of interest groups and opinions leaders, aside from that it is transformative over limitless stages with worldwide reach at extraordinary speed. That implies that the social networking stage, now  coordinated with tradtional media have far more capacity both as a middle person (for the media messages it aggregates) and additionally the original content it embraces.

Associations through these sites can mimic an personal connection with people and organizations that are trusted for counsel and information. One need just view the "followers' or 'fans' of a superstar for a quick investigation of their impact. In a health context, Dr. Oz has 328,000+ followers as of the beginning of today. The web and social networking extend an interpersonal system, both through empowering passive correspondence with a bigger gathering of family and companions and furthermore through getting day by day communication through a more extensive network of famous people or specialists.

Refrences:

Everette E. Dennis. 2008. two step flow. [ONLINE] Available at: http://mj.unc.edu/sites/default/files/images/documents/ante/ante_two-step.pdf.

Anon 2017. Is two-step flow theory still relevant for social media research? [Online]. Available at: http://matei.org/ithink/2010/07/30/is-stop-step-flow-theory-still-relevant-for-social-media-research/

Effects of Media on Active and Passive Audiences

All media text is produced with the audience in mind. Audience is the people who ‘read’ or consume different media text. Because we all perceive different information in different ways audience as a whole has been divided in two types; Active and Passive.
An active audience is one that actively engages with the media product. They question what they are presented with and do not easily accept it. They build their own interpretation on it according to their past experiences.

A passive audience is one that does not question the text and accepts the message as it is intended. They do not have their own perceptions on the message as planned.
The behavior of these two types of audiences can be better explained according to different theories.
For example the hypodermic needle theory suggests that all audience is passive and readily accepts whatever the media ‘injects’ into its brain. This theory is backed up by an experiment carried out by Orson Wells in the 1930s in which a fake news bulletin was broadcasted saying that earth was being invaded by aliens. Out of 12 million people one million believed this to be true.

As technology grew theories claiming all audience as passive was debunked and new theories emerged which suggested that audience is actually not as blind as first perceived. One theory that explains this is the Uses and gratification theory.
The Uses and gratification theory states that the audiences have different choices in order to satisfy their needs. According to this theory audience is free to decide how they will use media and how it affects them. Apart from this there is also the two step theory that says that people tend to be influenced by opinion leaders more than the media itself. Opinion leaders are those who consume media and have their own perception about it which is further shared by them to other people. Opinion leaders are mostly people who have a stronger or alpha position in society which is why they are able to influence those around them.

In today’s world audience is more complex and has their own tastes and needs. They cannot be categorized into just one type, active or passive. Now the audience is a consumer that interacts with the media due to the rise of digital media. In the past one way communication did not allow feedback which led to the old ideologies on audience behavior but since the rise of two way communication these theories have drastically changed and the audience cannot be put in one category anymore due to the vast diversification of the sorts of audiences.

References:
Influence of mass media (2017) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influence_of_mass_media

http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/417/1/Chapter_in_Valdivia_Blackwell_volume_2003.pdf