1. Theory:
Hypodermic Needle Model
Theorists:
The theory was developed in the 1920’s and 1930’s and was one of the earliest ways of
thinking about the media and how it influences people and they observed the effects of
propaganda this in world war 2.
What is the theory?
The theory explains how the mass media influences a large group of people by directly and
uniformly injecting them with appropriate messages to tell them how to react to a certain
image or text. It suggests that the media has lots of power of their audience and they can
make them think and feel a certain way to work in their favour as they are trying to trigger
and desired response. Within this theory they use a bullet and needle graph to show how
the information is receive from their audience. The bullet theory is a way of explain how
the information is received by the audience. This model shows that the information is fired
at the audience and injected with message from main stream media.
This shows us that the audience are passive as they allow for the
media to inject them with their opinions and do not try to stop it. The
public are seen as a sitting suck and they end thinking that there is no
information then the one they have been told believing everything
the media source says.
Does this theory see the audience as active or passive? Why do you think this?
The Hypodermic needle model see their audience as passive as the media is believed by
the audience without them questioning it and they do not apply any thought upon the
message. Being a passive audience means you go along with the message and will follow
the crowd in what most people believe and think, you do not have your own opinion on
the message and will just accept what’s happening. It is not an active audience as they
would challenge the message being spread across and use their own information to argue
against it but as their audience do not this makes them passive.
What are the criticisms of this theory?
The theory started to become a concern as people started to realise the public could be
influenced very easily to change their opinion and attitude on what they have taken in. The
theory was also proved to fail by a study called “The People Choice”. They research the
voting pattern and political behaviour of the audience during the time of the theory. The
evidence showed the pattern was affected by the media but was more affected by
interpersonal commination’s, showing the audience made their own choice more from
their own personal communications disproving the theory. Another criticism about the
theory is that it does fit in today’s world and is outdated as most people are not influenced
by the media and have their own choices.
Apply the theory:
An example of this theory is in 1938, October 30th
Orson Welles broadcasted their radio
station on the eve of Halloween interrupting it with news that aliens had come down to
earth. The theory worked as 1 million people out of 12 million believed the news and
stated to panic. This was known as the “Panic Broadcast” and changed the history of radio.
Another example of people believing the media is in 1965 the BBC formed a April fools
prank on the audience through the media by conducting an interview and said they had
perfected “smellovison”, were you can smell your way through the TV. A s a result of this
lots of viewers called in from all over the country saying that had experienced scents from
the TV.