Editing Two-step flow of communication (section)

== Criticisms ==
The original two-step flow hypothesis—that ideas flow from the media to opinion leaders and then to less active sections of the population—has been criticised. In 1960, conclusions from Deutschmann and Danielson assert, "we would urge that the Katz-Lazarsfeld two-stage flow hypothesis, as a description of the initial information process, be applied to mass communication with caution".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Deutschmann |first1=Paul J. |last2=Danielson |first2=Wayne A. |title=Diffusion of Knowledge of the Major News Story |journal=Journalism Quarterly |date=1 September 1960 |volume=37 |issue=3 |pages=345–355 |doi=10.1177/107769906003700301 |s2cid=143155069 }}</ref>

Everett Rogers' "Diffusion of Innovations" cites one study in which two-thirds of respondents accredited their awareness to the mass media rather than face-to-face communication. Similarly, critics argue that most of Lazarsfeld's findings pertain to learning factors involved with general media habits rather than the learning of particular information.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rogers |first1=Everett M |title=Diffusion of innovations |date=1962 |publisher=Free Press of Glencoe |pages=98–102 |oclc=902483976 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Lionberger |first1=Herbert F |title=Adoption of new ideas and practices a summary of the research dealing with the acceptance of technological change in agriculture, with implications for action in facilitating such change. |date=1960 |publisher=Iowa State University Press |oclc=960886669 }}{{pn|date=May 2021}}</ref>

However, Lazarsfeld's two-step hypothesis is an adequate description to understand the media's influence on belief and behavior. Troldahl finds that media exposure is a first step to introduce discussion, at which point opinion leaders initiate the second-step flow.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Troldahl |first1=Verling C. |title=A Field Test of a Modified 'Two-Step Flow of Communication' Model |journal=The Public Opinion Quarterly |date=1966 |volume=30 |issue=4 |pages=609–623 |doi=10.1086/267459 |jstor=2746966 }}</ref>

According to Hilbert today's digital media landscape simultaneously facilitate one-step, two-step and more complex multi-step flow models of communication.<ref name="HilbertTwostep"/> For example, in Twitter networks it is no contradiction that average Twitter users mainly mention intermediating opinion leaders in their tweets (two-step flow), while at the same time traditional mass media outlets receive 80-90 % of their mentions directly through a direct one-step flow from the same users.<ref name="HilbertTwostep"/>

Another criticism is that people have raised concerns about credit not being entirely given where it is due. According to Esperanza Herrero, women played a significant role in developing the Two-Step Flow theory. A woman named Joan Doris Goldhamer testified that she vividly remembers how she and several other women were calculating percentages, collecting data, and handling technical work. They also conducted many detailed and well-structured interviews and assisted in interpreting the information they helped gather for the theory.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Herrero |first=Esperanza |date=2025-01-06 |title=The Women Who Proposed Two-Step Flow: A Gendered Revisit to the Intellectual History of a Mass Communication Theory |url=https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/23134 |journal=International Journal of Communication |language=en |volume=19 |pages=20 |issn=1932-8036}}</ref>