The 'Hypodermic Needle' Theory

This theory was developed in the 1920s and 1930s.
The theory implies mass media has a direct, immediate and powerful effect on it's audiences. The mass media in the 1940s and 1950s were perceived as a powerful influence on behaviour change. There are several factors that contribute to it:

• The fast rise and popularization of radio and television.
• The emergence of the persuasion industries, such as advertising and propaganda. 

The Hypodermic Theory suggests that the mass media could influence a very large group of people directly and uniformly by "shouting" or "injecting" them with appropriate messages designed to trigger a desired response.

It suggests a powerful and direct flow of information from the 'sender' to the 'receiver'.

The theory/model suggests media messages are 'injected' straight into a passive audience who are immediately influenced by the message. This is to trigger a desired response.
The theory suggests there is a powerful and direct flow of information from the sender to the receiver.
Media messages are injected into a passive audience who are then influenced by what is being 'injected'.

The developers of this theory expressed that the media is a dangerous means of communicating an idea because the audience is powerless to resist the impact of the message.
The audience has a lot of media material 'Shot' at them. They believe what they are told because there is only one source. Therefore we as an audience believe anything we hear in the media because we see it as a trustworthy and true source.

• This is a good example of why moral panics happen. A moral panic is when a story or situation is blown way out of proportion because of the control that the media has in our lives. The people who are usually responsible for these moral panics is the public. Because of social networks such as Twitter people can express their views and opinions which sometimes scare people and they panic. An example of this is the 'Ebola' crisis. Although it is a scary and worrying disease by people saying thins such as "we are all going to die" it scares people into believing it and then they join in.  

A famous case of a moral panic

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. However people heard it an thought it was real and thought martians were invading the earth. 

• This demonstrates a passive audience and how an audience believes what they hear. 

However there are many criticisms that come with this theory:

1. It is out of date and invalid.
2. Not everyone consumes the media in the same way.
3. Not everyone watches the news/consumes media in the same way.
4. Audiences are not simply 'passive'