Nhung Nguyen

Key scholars

Gabriel Tarde, Friedrich Ratzel and Leo Frobenius (century 19)

Ryan and Gross (1943)

Everett Rogers (2003)

Seminal reading(s)

Ryan, B.; Gross, N. (1943). “The diffusion of hybrid seed corn in two Iowa communities”. Rural Sociology. 8 (1).

Rogers, Everett (16 August 2003). Diffusion of Innovations, 5th Edition. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-0-7432-5823-4.

Toews, D. (2003) The New Tarde: Sociology after the End of the Social. Theory Culture & Society 20(5), 81-98.

Key concepts

• Innovation
• Communication channels
• Time
• Social system
• Innovators
• Adopters

Main premises

Rogers proposes that four main elements influence the spread of a new idea: the innovation itself, communication channels, time, and a social system.  This process relies heavily on human capital.  The innovation must be widely adopted in order to self-sustain.  Within the rate of adoption, there is a point at which an innovation reaches critical mass.

The categories of adopters are innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. Diffusion manifests itself in different ways and is highly subject to the type of adopters and innovation-decision process. The criterion for the adopter categorization is innovativeness, defined as the degree to which an individual adopts a new idea.

Diffusion occurs through a five-step decision-making process. It occurs through a series of communication channels over a period of time among the members of a similar social system. Ryan and Gross first identified adoption as a process in 1943. Rogers’ five stages (steps): awareness, interest, evaluation, trial, and adoption are integral to this theory. An individual might reject an innovation at any time during or after the adoption process.

Rogers also identified

THREE types of innovation decisions:

1. Optional Innovation-Decision: made by an individual who is in some way distinguished from others.
2. Collective Innovation-Decision: made collectively by all participants.
3. Authority Innovation-Decision: made for the entire social system by individuals in positions of influence or power.

FIVE categories of adopters which are:

1. Innovators- they require the shortest adoption period, are technology driven, and are motivated by being change agents.
2. Early Adopters – They serve as opinion leaders, have a desire to be trendsetters and they want to be part of revolutionizing the industry.
3. Early Majority – They interact frequently with peers, serve as opinion leaders later in the process, and will buy if they are referenced by a trusted colleague.
4. Late Majority – They respond to peer pressure, they are skeptical and cautious, require bullet-proof solutions, and are motivated to keep up with competitors.
5. Laggards – They are isolated from opinion leaders, often suspicious, their decision time is lengthy and ultimately want to keep up with the status quo.

Common methods

• Experiment
• The in-depth interview
• focused group discussion
• Questionnaires, self-reporting
• Machine learning
• Case study

Limitations

• A lack of a consistent application of the diffusion theory for new problems;
• It is difficult to measure the causes of adoption quantitatively, and the predictions of adoptions are difficult to be generated because this theory does not account for all variables;
• Diffusion is a one-way communication model, it is hard to apply this theory in a complex communication environment;
• Not all new technology or ideas are good, and using this theory can lead to bias or a wrong perception of development.
• Different to studying what happened a long time ago

Developments

The theory is used to look at hierarchical and administration systems to see how policy is created.  This is an approach that is used when looking at policymaking in political systems.

This is also common when looking at how people adapt to new technology. Marketing outlets use this theory to understand how to penetrate the market with a new product.  This is useful when trying to understand how to get a new product to sell.

In the media, it is studied to understand how ideas in the media are adopted by the public.  They often look at how ideas are being adopted by society and how they can penetrate members of society who are less willing to agree with an introduced concept.  This would be used now in looking at how the public is receiving ideas from the media in relation to climate change or politics.  They are ultimately trying to figure out how to best get members of the public to agree with or look at an idea.

There are both positive and negative consequences to adopting an idea or new innovation.  There is more research being done to better understand the positive and negative consequences to adopting ideas specifically related to: public vs. private, benefits vs cost, and Intended vs unintended outcomes.

 Typical research questions

• What affects the decision-making in spreading information?
• What motivates ones to diffuse information?
• How information is spread from source to large population?
• How do people adopt new media devices and technology?
• How do new media affect the information adoption process?
• How does the public perceive a product or idea?
• How can an outlet change the public’s perception?

*This is the series of theories from KU’s Jour801 Course- Communication Theories