Hypodermic Needle Theory

The Hypodermic Needle Theory was brought about in the 1930s and for a very long time stayed very valid within the media world. The theory itself suggests that mass media could have a very direct influence on an audience uniformly by ‘injecting’ them with a message to trigger the desired response. This theory shows that the audience is relatively powerless or does not resist against whatever message they are being fed. In other words it calls the audience passive and accepting of anything the media says. It also expressed that the media is a very dangerous means of communication.

This theory plays on human behavior in such a way that humans are all supposed to react uniformly to stimuli. The audience thought the media is a source of accurate information due to which they accepted all the information they were given. This information was usually tailored strategically to what the audience would want to hear thus adding to their acceptance of it.

This theory was tested out in the 1930s by Orson Wells when they broadcasted a fake news bulletin over the radio. The broadcast was aired between the radio program ‘War of the Worlds’ and it said that aliens had invaded a city called Grover’s Mill in New Jersey, America. This message reached 12 million American people out of which 1 million believed that it was true thus throwing the whole country into chaos.

Because the Hypodermic Needle Theory was based on assumption rather than any extensive research it was soon disapproved of by a lot of media scholars. In 1940 researchers Paul Lazarsfeld and Herta Herzog conducted the ‘People’s Choice’ study in which they saw how much the media’s propaganda had an effect on the Franklin D. Roosevelt election. They discovered that interpersonal sources of opinion influences the audience more than the media itself and thus came to a conclusion that everyone has their own way of choosing which messages they want to be influenced by from the media.

Now as media is becoming more and more interactive this theory does not have much validity left anymore. Focus group testing, questionnaires and other sorts of marketing started coming into use along with more interactive media such as the internet or call-in shows so more theories have come up which have claimed to be much more of significance. Earlier because of one-way media the audience could not give their feedback but now due to two-way media the audience has learnt to question or talk back.

Even though this theory is out of date it can be regarded as one of the first theories in the media world and it is what made media scholars research more on audience behavior. Due to so many sources of information now in the present day people have the power to choose what to believe and what not to believe. The media’s influence on the audience grows more complex but the fact still stands that audience are more  influenced by their interpersonal relationships than the media itself.

References:

Hypodermic needle theory (1989) Available at: https://www.utwente.nl/cw/theorieenoverzicht/Theory%20Clusters/Mass%20Media/Hypodermic_Needle_Theory/.

AS, H.C.M. (2014) Katie Salmon. Available at: http://www.slideshare.net/HannahCharlesMedia/hypodermic-needle-theory-29639628

*, N. (2012) Hypodermic needle theory. Available at: http://www.communicationstudies.com/communication-theories/hypodermic-needle-theory

John (2010) MAGIC BULLET OR HYPODERMIC NEEDLE THEORY OF COMMUNICATION. Available at: http://communicationtheory.org/magic-bullet-or-hypodermic-needle-theory-of-communication/