The results of both studies highlight the importance of the primary group, which is characterized by its powerful action mediating the direct effect that the media can play in shaping the “preferences”. That is, communication is a two-stage process in which the role of social groups and opinion leaders is crucial. This hypothesis is known as two-step flow of communication. In the first stage, we have the relatively well-informed people which are directly exposed to the effects of mass media. In the second stage, the less exposed to the action of the media, which depend on the well-informed to acquire information.

The processes of social mobilization that occurred from May 15, 2011 in Spain, previously in the Arab countries (especially Egypt, in which the established regime was overthrown), as well as in other Mediterranean countries such as Greece, against crisis and against the measures taken by policymakers, offer an opportunity to review this hypothesis from the point of view of both its continuity and its diversity.

Several authors, such as Manuel Castells in his book Communication Power, seem to suggest the overcoming of this hypothesis. Specifically states on page 150, making explicit reference to The People’s Choice, that “for a long time scholarly research minimized the impact of media and political campaigns on the outcome of elections, a contradiction of the majority of political consultants’ beliefs and practices”. Perhaps such statements are based on a misinterpretation of the hypothesis of the two-step flow of communication, as the body of research that was generated under this paradigm in any way minimizes the importance of the media in shaping voting behavior, but only explains the process followed by the flow of communication in shaping the so-called “electoral preferences”: opinion leaders spread the message of the media among those who are less exposed to the direct action of the media. Hardly highlighting the role of the media in creating opinion, counting on the complicity of those who are most exposed to their action, can be considered “minimize the impact of media and political campaigns on the outcome of elections”.

The problem of the hypothesis of the two-step flow of communication is another. It consists in the directionality of the process. The work of Lazarsfeld seems to point that the media effect starts from media, going through opinion leaders, and ending with less exposed voters. That is, he emphasizes that the effect of mass media is not direct, as researchers first supposed in the opening moments of the Mass Communication Research paradigm (that is what has been called “the hypodermic needle model”, which was used for the first time in the research of Harold D. Lasswell Propaganda Techniques in the World War, in 1927), but mediated. The facts revolving around the political and social mobilizations that have been witnessed in 2011 suggest that the relationship between the audience and the media are bidirectional, or at least far more complex than Lazarsfeld’s original researches suggested. These events seem to suggest (in order to test this hypothesis we need to conduct a thorough inquiry) that directionality of this process could be the inverse of that which is proposed by Lazarsfeld, Katz, Berelson and Gaudet in the original studies: opinion leaders, through which it now can be considered the equivalent of the old word of mouth —i.e. media such as Twitter, Facebook, or the like— express a collective state of mind, which by thus goes on to constituting formal collective opinion (because, in fact, it comes from the collective spirit), thereby mobilizing many people who feels identified with this state of mind, which mass media (e.g., radio, television, newspapers, etc.) make becomes part of the communication agenda. That is, it becomes news. As you can see, this process, which is the same most of the processes of collective mobilization revolving around the discomfort generated by the social, political, economic and moral crisis seem to have followed in 2011, is characterized by going from social groups to media —even though it is undeniable that the mass media are a key element in order to achieve a greater mobilization, because like it or not these are still dictating news agenda— not from media to social groups, as initially suggested the hypothesis of the two-step flow of communication.

El artículo The two-step flow of communication se publicó primero en Xavier Gimeno Torrent.

The second hypothesis is quite more plausible and should be considered in more detail. According to this, in situations of crisis receiving immigration, the changes that are taking place in the social structure are totally opposed to what is pointed out in the previous hypothesis. In this case, native groups see how as a result of the crisis, their material conditions of life worsen. This fact does not imply an upward mobility by these native classes, but the opposite situation: a downward mobility. From a symbolic point of view this is an important wound: his pride of class suffers, because its symbolic capital decreases: they value themselves less and are less socially valued as a social class which has seen its material conditions of life worsen. The fact of receiving immigrants (in this case, they also migrate because although they occupy the lowest positions in the host society, their material conditions of life improved in relation to the society of origin) still worsens the situation: in the eyes of the natives, the immigrants do not fall into poverty because they are already in poverty. From that moment on, the immigrants will be the scapegoat against which will reveal these social classes who see how their material conditions of life and their symbolic capital decreases subjectively and comparatively more than those of immigrants, because it is not the same for someone who sees itself as “middle class” became poor than became poorer for someone who already sees itself as poor: the shame and the indignation of the former becomes the resignation of the latter. Thus, immigrants are seen as “competitors” of the “new poor” who believe that these (when, in fact, the crisis is the cause of all this, since crisis affects subjectively, never objectively or materially, more the natives than the immigrants: the wound inflicted on moral to those going from “have it all” to “have nothing” or are badly off is a great wound, mainly because the wounds inflicted on those who have never suffered any wound are very deep, because overprotection does not help diminish the importance of the wound inflicted, since the first cut is the deepest) are stealing their opportunities, their benefits and their jobs.

(An excerpt from the document The establishment of the district of Santa Maria de Palafolls (in Catalan).)

El artículo Racism and crisis se publicó primero en Xavier Gimeno Torrent.

El artículo The sociologist and the social position se publicó primero en Xavier Gimeno Torrent.

The concept of epistemological break comes from the tradition of French philosophy of science which was practiced during the first half of the twentieth century at the Collége de France. Its cultivators were philosophers as Canguilhem, Bachelard, Koyre, etc. The term seems to refer to an aptitude which all those engaged in the profession of scientist have. It also seems to suggest that this competence is achieved through the training that enables for the profession of scientist. The term “epistemological” would seem to be related to those two factors. Moreover, the fact that they use the term “break” seems to imply that it is a finite process: a rupture or a break is something that is done once and for all without interruption. And what is more important, the term “break” gives the impression that it is a process that someone makes in a consciously planned way.

On the contrary, the epistemological break is far from being a technical, non continuous and consciously planned process. The epistemological break is essentially a social process and as any social process is characterized by the social conditions in which it takes place, determining its effect and efficiency. Obviously, the social conditions that are at the origin of the break are neither established nor chosen by the person, since he finds them already made and these are the basis that will determine the success of the epistemological break affected. Thus, the epistemological break is actually a rupture, characterized by their duration in time and their infiniteness, with certain ways of seeing the world and the social groups that are their spokesmen. As you can see, epistemological ruptures are also social ruptures starting long before the person affected is conscious of their action, and therefore, he has little power to act on them, neither he can accelerate them nor increase their effects. Moreover, the individual affected will do everything possible in order for the rupture does not happen, as they are often traumatic ruptures. They can mean breaking with the primary groups (family, friends) and the native places (places we were born). Usually behind epistemological breaks of the generations of young scientists there are often processes of upward mobility performed by the children of working classes (in urban social contexts) or by the children of farming families in rural contexts involved in processes of farming crisis, or maybe by second-generation immigrants. That is, they are usually performed by people who are in no man’s land and which, previously, before becoming scientists capable of thinking on the counter, had been questioned by the reality itself, not having any other choice but to learn to question this reality questioning its own existence. This is the social structure determining the efficacy, the effect, and the intensity of the epistemological break induced. Are these the social conditions required leading to the success of an epistemological break, as is shown in books as Sketch for a Self-Analysis by Pierre Bourdieu, a prime example of the process followed by an episteomological break.

El artículo The epistemological break se publicó primero en Xavier Gimeno Torrent.