Two-Step Flow of Communication examines how relationships and trusted interpreters mediate media messages, changing their meaning as well as their circulation. Influence is topic-specific and pathways can have one or many steps, so exposure, interpretation, influence, and retransmission need separate investigation rather than inference from visibility.
- FamilyModel
- CategoryTheories & Explanatory Models
- DomainMedia, Publics & Society
What these mean
Editorial orientation · Family
Model
In this series, Model names the editorial family primarily used to understand and explain communication: theories, frameworks, effects, traditions, principles and other conceptual resources. It is an umbrella for a route into the field, not a claim that every included object is a predictive model.
Editorial orientation · Category
Theories & Explanatory Models
Explains how or why a communication process works by relating mechanisms, conditions or variables. Its value is an account that can guide inquiry into what produces an outcome, rather than a name for the outcome alone.