The Vaping Crisis: How We Got Here and How to End it.

The Vaping Crisis
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The Vaping Crisis:
How We Got Here and How to End it
Examining the Alarming Proliferation of E-Cigarettes and Vaping in Youth Circles Through the Lenses of Two-Step Flow and Inoculation Theories of Communication
Over the past few years, the number of teen vaping has been on the rise, leading to an outbreak of lung diseases and panic as regulatory agencies are trying to come up with legislation to control and prevent vaping among teens. E-cigarettes have become popular due to the internet age, and it is also easier to purchase the devices online. Despite the reports of lung illness, seizures, and exploding e-cigarettes, there is a lack of strict regulations, and investigations are still ongoing to determine the best solution to the issue. The problem can be resolved via health education projects which rely on the mass media to change people’s behavior and attitudes while improving resistance to environmental influence like smoking. This paper will focus on examining the alarming proliferation of e-cigarettes and vaping in youth circles through the lenses of two-step flow and inoculation theories of communication.
Definition of the Two-Step Flow Theory of Communication
In today’s society, most trends become popularized by word of mouth and influence from person to person. Instead of most people being influenced directly by the media, they are picking up on trends and opinions from others who pay attention to the media and then spread their thoughts. This type of influence was analyzed and defined by Paul Lazarsfeld and some of his other Columbia University colleagues as the two-step flow model. In 1944 Lazarsfeld and his colleagues conducted a study, known as The People’s Choice,into the role that media plays in influencing people’s decisions regarding the current presidential election. What they found was that of those surveyed, most reported that they learned about what was going on in the election from the people around them rather than the media directly.[Katz, Elihu. “Two-Step Flow of Communication: An Up-To-Date Report on an Hypothesis.” Political Opinion Quarterly. 1957.]
Through this research Lazarsfeld was able to conclude that media influences people in two stages: first, the media content is consumed by people who often pay attention to media. Second, these people then act as “opinion leaders” when they relay their opinions on the content to others, thereby influencing other’s opinions on the content. Simply put, these “opinion followers” are shaping their opinions on a matter off of someone else’s opinion. This type of opinion shaping does not just stop after one opinion follower receives the information, but it continues on from person to person to the point where most people’s opinions on a topic are barely shaped by the original media.[Turow, Joseph. “Media Today: Mass Communication in a Converging World.” Routledge. 2017.]
Because so many people rely on opinion leaders to help them shape their own interpretations of media content, these opinion leaders have a large amount of influence on how a topic is received that rivals the influence of the direct media. An issue that arises with this is that opinion leaders are often exposed to media content that targets their lifestyle “sphere”. This means that the media can pinpoint those most likely to be regarded as opinion leaders and frame their content in a way that catches the leader’s attention and increases the likelihood of them spreading an opinion that favors the media’s agenda. The two-step flow model’s creation of opinion leaders, or influencers, also produces the issue that these influencers, because of their knowledge and reach, are able to create a pressure to conform within a group’s social sphere. This pressure to conform then spreads and becomes difficult to assuage. For example, Juuling has become popularized by opinion leaders to the point where attempts to prevent people from Juuling have had little effect due to the widespread pressure to conform that has been created.[Katz, Elihu. “Two-Step Flow of Communication: An Up-To-Date Report on an Hypothesis.” Political Opinion Quarterly. 1957.] [Katz, Elihu. “Two-Step Flow of Communication: An Up-To-Date Report on an Hypothesis.” Political Opinion Quarterly. 1957.]
Although the two-step flow theory has brought light to many issues that come with this type of mass communication, it has also allowed many researchers to more easily predict the type of influence that certain media messages will have on audiences attitudes and behaviors, while also improving the way we understand media and its effects on decision-making (PDF).
Application of the Two-Step Flow Theory of Communication to E-Cigarettes and Vaping
The Two-Step Flow theory applies to the e-cigarette media issue because a giant part of media promotion of e-cigarettes are through opinion leaders. Social media influencers have began promoting the use of e-cigarette products on their social media accounts, which targets impressionable teenagers and young adults. Especially on instagram, the use of e-cigarettes has been glamorized by many users with a large following. Hannah is an Instagram opinion leader with over 100,000 Instagram followers who regularly promotes e-cigarettes. Throughout her many posts smoking out of her various flavored e-cigarettes regularly, Hannah glamorizes a lifestyle of vaping interweaved into her daily life. She is not alone. Liam Gunther is another Instagram user with over 49,000 followers who makes similar posts. With posts specifically asking if people check their phone or vape first before they start their day, it is no wonder that they are fueling an obsessive use of these products.. This goes beyond promoting a single product, but instead promotes an entire lifestyle that is addicted to vaping. There are influencers who promote vaping from e-cigarettes and then there are influencers like Liam that make it their whole online persona. He even has an instagram post on how to vape for new people starting to get into e-cigarettes. Going beyond a product, this induces their many followers to follow in their same path thinking that they are just doing a harmless activity like a sport. However, this has real consequences.[Luthra, Shefali and Chaseedaw Giles. “Vaping Influencers Give Feds a Headache.” Daily Beast. November 10, 2019. /vaping-influencers-give-feds-a-headache] [Ibid]
These are just two major opinion leaders on Instagram that specialize their online persona on the e-cigarette industry. There are other opinion leaders that do not devote their whole account to this, but rather promote it with an e-cigarette and the hashtag “Vaporized” or “Juul.” There are many more that promote e-cigarettes through single posts, yet these opinion leaders reach a broader audience than the accounts who solely promote e-cigarettes. While only people seeking out e-cigarettes will follow accounts like Hannah and Liam, many more people who are not already hooked onto e-cigarettes will come into contact with these products through single posts by other opinion influencers who do not specialize their content on e-cigarettes.[Luthra, Shefali and Chaseedaw Giles. “Vaping Influencers Give Feds a Headache.” Daily Beast. November 10, 2019. /vaping-influencers-give-feds-a-headache]
Instagram users like these people in turn utilize their platform in order to spread to large audiences that vaping is an “attractive”...