Diffusion Theories: News Diffusion

News diffusion is a branch of mass communications research dealing with how news is circulated among publics. Two phases of research have occurred in news diffusion research. The first phase began after World War II and continued to the 1980s, and the second began with the arrival of the Internet and social media in the 1990s. Key questions raised during the first phase of diffusion research included whether media or interpersonal ties are the sources of information about an event; the type of event; and media structure. In the second phase, citizen journalists and others became participants in the news production and diffusion process—which until the advent of new media had been entirely controlled by professional journalists.