watts redux (2): influentials

Watts has also critiqued the influentials or two-step model (not to be confused with this). The mass media model posits an atomistic world where TV/newspapers/etc reach individuals (kinda like the Protestant view of Christianity, with the Marketer as God). The influencer model inserts a layer of intermediaries (like Catholicism with its Priesthood) who are especially influential. All the marketer has to do is reach the influencers and they then spread the message to everyone else.

Reading the paper available via the link above (and not pretending to understand it all), a few things stick out:

• In the models that Watts & Dodds build, influencers do have a role - but that role is dwarfed by the influence of the wider environment.
• Having a bunch of people who are susceptible to your message is more important than influencers (does this mean that followers are more important than leaders?).
• Rather than trying to reach influencers, how do you go about trying to first understand the environment of your audiences?
• It implies that you need multiple ways of intervening in this environment, rather than just dropping a line to some influential people.