Katz and Lazarsfeld believe that the factor that does get involved in the process of mass media influencing the general public is the so-called "opinion leaders." Mass media definitely uphold great influences on people; however, if often has great effect on the much more active population and from these individuals, the ideas and messages get passed onto the general population through interpersonal interactions (such as everyday personal relationships). According to Katz and Lazarsfeld, "interpersonal relations are potential networks of communication" (Katz and Lazarsfeld 33) and the opinion leaders are usually the ones to play a key role in between the mass media and general population. .
The role of media is to reinforce certain ideas to the opinion leaders and have them influence the general public through interpersonal interactions throughout daily lives. The "reinforcement function" includes two main contexts: Person-to-person sharing of opinions and attitudes and Person-to-person communications networks (Katz and Lazarsfeld 45). This reinforcement theory can be identified as a minimal-effects theory of media effects. By reinforcing certain ideas to certain people, this theory fits the definition of "minimal-effects theory" because it implies that the mass media has limited effect on the audience. In the minimal-effects model, the mass media focuses its attention on "reinforcing existing behaviors and attitudes rather than changing them" (Campbell 517).
On the other hand, Schudson believes that individuals are the force that controls and drives the direction of advertisement and how it presents to the general public. The marketers" main focus is to fulfill and satisfy the general public's desires in order to make profit out of the products the marketers present to them. This author believes that the mass media purposely work around the decentness of the information within the messages in advertisement and often, at times, provide the audience untrustworthy information.