Hypodermic Needle Theory (Audience)

The theory suggests that the mass media could influence a very large group of people by 'shooting' or 'injecting' them with appropriate messages. It had a powerful effect on its audiences in the 1940's and 1950's because radio was becoming increasingly popular, as were persuasion industries such advertising. because the audience os passive, they believe exactly what they are told and give the effect that the producers desired. 

The lack of media available at that time meant that audiences were much more easily influenced than an audience would be today because they had no other sources to check the information against or to hear differently from however in today's society, we could check social media, we are able to trace the source of an article, or we could simply ring up family or friends to check that they had heard the same thing and see what their opinion was on the situation. 

An example that puts this theory into context is the 'panic' that was caused by the 'War of The Worlds' broadcast in 1938. The broadcast was performed in the style of news bulletin so that people  were more likely to believe what they were being told and had no reason to question it. This had the desired effect on the audience because it caused panic across America as they genuinely believed that they were under attack and aliens were going to take over the world, this is because they had no reason no to believe it and they had no other media sources to check the information against or to be told any different, nor could they contact other people to see what they thought was going on.

(Audio of the 'War of the Worlds' Broadcast - 1938)

Criticisms of this theory include:

- The theory is invalid for modern day society

- Not all audiences/people consumes media in the same way

- more up to date theories have proved that audiences are no longer passive

- Nowadays, we have a much better understanding of media conventions therefore we are able to detect whether something is believable or not and we are able to research and look deeper into something if we have reason to doubt it

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