Media Diffusion

Diffusion of Innovations

Most accounts of diffusion research place its origins with the work of sociologist Gabriel Tarde. In 1903, Tarde observed the diffusion process’s characteristic “S-curve” (a slow rate of initial adoption, then a sharp acceleration in take-up and gradual tapering off). While efforts to integrate diffusion research into communication studies began as early as the 1940s, the key work was Everett Rogers’s 1962 Diffusion of Innovations. Defining diffusion as “the process in which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system,” Rogers introduced an analytical model upon which he continued to expand and refine throughout his career (p. 5). In its current form, Rogers’s approach divides the diffusion process into two subprocesses: innovation-development (the generation of an innovation) and innovation-decision (the decision to adopt the innovation). Each subprocess is composed of multiple stages (Figure 1).

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Figure 1 Diffusion of Innovations Approach

Source: Rogers (2003).

The development process begins with (a) recognition of a problem/need that the innovation will answer; this is followed by (b) a research stage where solutions are explored, (c) a development stage where solutions are tailored to the intended adopters, (d) a commercialization stage where final packaging, marketing, and distribution strategies are planned, (e) an adoption/diffusion stage where the innovation is released, and (f) resulting consequences of the innovation (direct/indirect, anticipated/unanticipated, and desired/undesired). For Rogers, innovation comes from outside “change agents,” and the adopters they target are divided into five categories. Innovators, with weaker ties to the group and a more “cosmopolite” orientation, form the initial targets; they in turn help to spread the innovation to forward-thinking early adopters, who are then followed by the early majority, a more skeptical late majority, and then laggards who actively resist innovation.

Adopters may be individuals or organizations, and the adoption process for each consists of five stages. For individuals, adoption begins by (a) gaining knowledge of the innovation, followed by (b) a persuasion stage where individuals develop favorable attitudes toward the innovation, (c) a decision to try it, and (d) implementation of that decision through actual adoption, and then (e) confirmation of the decision’s appropriateness that ensures continued use (or, conversely, discontinuance). For organizations, adoption proceeds through the stages of (a) agenda-setting, where problems/needs are identified, (b) matching of potential innovations to those problems/needs, (c) redefining/restructuring innovations to better adapt them to that organization, (d) clarifying means of better integrating the innovation into the organization during its initial usage, and then (e) full routinization of usage. While early work focused on individual adoption, the expansion of organizational communication in recent decades has led to more work on collective decision-making, and Rogers has also pushed for greater attention to the initial development process.

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