Two Step Flow

The Hypodermic Needle Model was proved to "clumsy" for media researchers who were seeking more of a precise explanation about the relationship between the audience and the text.

As mass media began to expand and become more of an essential to life, those around the world did not become reduced to a mass of 'unthinking drones'.

Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson and Hazel Gaudlet believed that audiences were 'opinion leaders' who then communicate to less active associates who they may have influenced. The audience then mediate the information they have recieved from the media and then the information is expressed by opinion leaders. Not being influenced by directly, creates a Two Step Flow.

This allowes researchers to realise that social factors are also very important to how audiences interpret the texts.

The Two Step Flow is what we wanted to achieve through our 'Energy Saving Lightbulb' advert, we hoped the end result would be word of mouth as well as the advert itself, reaching a younger generation.