You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.

There's this thing known as the two-step flow theory of communication.

Basically, the idea is that information about, say, a big worldwide news event like a

pandemic starts with the media.

That information is picked up by a group of people who are really engaged and informed,

who then filter what they know out to others.

It's not just like the media sends out a message into the world and everyone hears it,

listens to it, believes it.

There's some people who are highly motivated or maybe they have expertise following issues

really carefully.

And then their advice, their judgments, what they're saying about it, influence other

people who are hearing about the same thing in the news.

That's Liz Neely, science communication extraordinaire and the executive director of the story

collider.

And maybe what she just said sounds familiar to you.

Maybe you've spent some time talking to friends and family about the coronavirus and why

it's so important to take it seriously.

If so, you might be what Liz calls a nerd node of trust.

I love that.

I mean, I totally stole that.

It also sounds like it would be a great name for like if you had a D&D troop, you know what

I mean?

...