CONSTRAINED OPINION LEADER INFLUENCE IN AN ELECTORAL CAMPAIGN SEASON: REVISITING THE TWO-STEP FLOW THEORY WITH MULTI-AGENT SIMULATION

Frank C. S. Liu ()
Additional contact information
Frank C. S. Liu: Institute of Political Science, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung 804, Taiwan

Advances in Complex Systems (ACS), 2007, vol. 10, issue 02, 233-250

Abstract: The conventional wisdom derived from the two-step flow theory suggests that opinion leaders have great influence on their followers. However, it has been difficult for social scientists to measure and describe the extent to which political opinion leaders influence voters, especially when voters today access multiple information sources like communication networks and self-selected news media. This paper fills this gap by using agent-based modeling to represent what the two-step flow theory describes about opinion leader influence and refines the theory based on the findings. First, opinion leader influence does not diffuse to the public without homogeneous communication networks. Second, opinion leader influence usually does not diffuse widely to the public because it inevitably faces resistance from self-strengthening communication networks.

Keywords: Opinion leader influence; two-step flow theory; communication networks; media influence; agent-based modeling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S0219525907001008
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wsi:acsxxx:v:10:y:2007:i:02:n:s0219525907001008

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from

DOI: 10.1142/S0219525907001008

Access Statistics for this article

Advances in Complex Systems (ACS) is currently edited by Frank Schweitzer

More articles in Advances in Complex Systems (ACS) from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Tai Tone Lim ().