In the Decatur, Illinois study of 1945, Katz and Lazarsfeld found that opinion leaders existed in several different spheres of daily life. Of course we can assume that there are more than four; opinion leaders are out there for every subject. But in this pioneering study, Katz and Lazarsfeld discovered four, and isolated distinct differences between the groups.
In Personal Influence the authors note that there are three factors by which an individual could be judged as an opinion leader. These factors are described in Section Three, Chapter Nine of their 1955 work, and are summarized as follows:
* Life Cycle: This aspect deals with the age of an individual, and whether that individual is married, has children in the home, or has children who have moved away, and the like. Which age influences which other age, etc.?
*Social and Economic Status: Where does an individual stand in terms of wealth and prestige in a given community? This aspect deals with the notion of vertical horizontal leadership. The researchers are interested in determining if, and how much, information is passed up or down the proverbial social ladder.
*Gregariousness: Katz and Lazarsfeld are interested in the sociability of an individual, or, in other words, how much contact an individual has with others. This notion is critical to the question of how influential one may be on others.
(Note: These criteria of opinion leadership are summarized from Personal Influence , p.220-223. For a more detailed description, please consult the original text.)
Katz and Lazarsfeld then applied these three aspects of opinion leadership to four different spheres of daily activity and opinion in an attempt to determine if opinion leaders possessed similar traits across diverse subjects. The researchers focused on women in exploring the four aforementioned areas, and this is what, in summary, Katz and Lazarsfeld discovered:
*Marketing: Large family wives are the most frequent source of marketing leaders .... Marketing leaders appeared in consistent proportions on each status level .... and for products of all kinds, friends and neighbors were named most often (1955, p.246).
*Fashion: Fashion leadership is dependent ... on life-cycle type ... [and] in fashions the girls are the key influential .... Social status must also be taken into account .... When influence traveled across status lines, it stemmed somewhat more from women of middle status (1955, p.270).
*Public Affairs: Social status ... plays a very much more important role in public affairs leadership.... Better educated, wealthier women ... seem to move in a climate which promotes greater participation in public affairs ... [and gregariousness is also a] major key to leadership (1955, p.295).
*Movies: Movie going is a main theme of American youth culture and the influential from this realm arise from the ranks of the young and carefree .... [and while] people go to the movies in groups ... when it comes to consulting a movie "expert," people of all ages turn to the girls (1955, p.308).
Granted these excerpts are only summaries of the study's findings. However, even in looking at the summaries one can distinguish several important points about opinion leadership and the Two - Step Flow model of communication. First, opinion leaders differ among different groups and among different subjects in question. Second, opinion leaders come from all strata of social life in a given society, and thus media messages may be interpreted and applied differently among social groups. Third, it is clear that media messages reach the mass audience through various filters, and therefore in order for a media message to reach several audiences, the message source must optimally alter the message to attract various groups.
While Katz and Lazarsfeld do not address this last point at great length, other authors and theorists do as functional theory begins to evolve over time. Melvin De Fleur is but one of these thinkers.
To trace the evolution of functional theory and read what De Fleur has to say on the topic, click here.
For a more detailed discussion on opinion leadership by William Heron, or to find additional sources on the subject, click here.
