Editing Two-step flow of communication (section)

== Lazarsfeld and Katz ==

Paul Lazarsfeld and Elihu Katz are considered to be the founders of functional theory and their book ''Personal Influence'' (1955) is considered to be the handbook to the theory.

=== Paul Felix Lazarsfeld ===
One of the first to embark on Communications research was the first to introduce the difference between 'administrative research' and 'critical research' in regards to the media. Critical research he believed, criticizes the media institutions themselves for the perspective ways they serve dominant social groups. Critical research favors interperspective and inductive methods of inquiry.
<ref>{{cite book|last=Staubhaar, LaRose, Davenport|title=Media Now|year=2009|publisher=Wadsworth Cengage Learning|location=Belmont, Ca|isbn=978-0-495-56595-6|pages=404}}</ref>
Lazarsfeld's study of the 1940 presidential election was published as ''The People's Choice'' (1944). During the research revealed information about the psychological and social processes that influence voting decisions. The study also uncovered an influence process that Lazarsfeld called "opinion leadership." He concluded that there is a multistep flow of information from the mass media to persons who serve as opinion leaders which then is passed on to the general public. He called this communication process the "two-step flow of communication".<ref>{{cite book|title=Paul F. Lazarsfeld Biography|url=http://www.bookrags.com/biography/paul-f-lazarsfeld/|publisher=Book Rags Inc.|accessdate=16 July 2011}}</ref>

=== Elihu Katz ===
[[Elihu Katz]] was a psychologist in the School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania when he collaborated with Lazarsfeld in 1955. Their research aimed to observe the flow of influence at the intersections of mass and interpersonal communication which resulted in the book ''Personal Influence''. Katz pursued Lazarfeld's research in a study of the flow of information, which is the basis of ''Personal Influence''. Katz and Lazarsfeld concluded that:
"... the traditional image of the mass persuasion process must make room for 'people' as intervening factors between the stimuli of the media and resultant opinions, decisions, and actions."<ref name="Katz & Lazarsfeld 1955"/>