Hypodermic Needle Theory

The Hypodermic Needle Theory was developed in the 1920s and 30s and implied that the mass media has a direct, immediate and powerful effect on its audiences. In the 1940s and 50s the mass media were perceived as a powerful influence on behaviour changes. Several factors contributed to this "strong effects" theory of communication, including: the fast rise and popularisation of radio and TV and the emergence of the persuasion industries, such as advertising and propaganda. This suggests that the mass media could influence a very large group of people directly and uniformly by 'injecting' them with appropriate messages designed to trigger a desired response. It could also show a powerful and direct flow of information from the sender to the receiver or it could suggest that media messages are injected straight into a passive audience which is immediately influenced by the message. It expresses the view that the media is a dangerous means of communicating an idea because the receiver or audience is powerless to resist the impact of the message. People are seen as passive and are seen as having a lot of media material 'shot' at them. People end up thinking what they are told because there is no other source of information. The theory assumes that what we see or hear we believe and consume. The theory assumes that we are brainwashed in to believing the media messages.

However this theory is less valid now as nowadays we have more sources such as social media and television.

Example:
In the 1930s a radio broadcast of 'War of the Worlds' was performed like a real news broadcast to heighten the effect of the story, people listening thought it was real and assumed Mars had come to invade the world (as played in the short video). This demonstrates a passive audience and how an audience believes what they hear in the new and how quickly this can turn into misinterpretation.

Cons:

• very out of date and invalid now
• not all people consume media in the same way
• not everyone watches the new
• audiences are not simply passive (more up to date theories have proved this)