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https://www.b2binternational.com/research/methods/faq/whats-the-difference-between-quantitative-and-qualitative-research/

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Today, we're talking about the Hypodermic Needle Theory which was one of the earliest ways of thinking about how the mass media influences audiences. It was developed in the 1920s and 1930s after researchers observed the effect of propaganda during World War I and events like Orson Welles' War of the Worlds broadcast. The Hypodermic Needle Theory is a linear communication theory which suggests that media messages are injected directly into the brains of a passive audience. It suggests that we're all the same and we all respond to media messages in the same way.

This way of thinking about communication and media influence is no longer really accepted. In the 1930s, many researchers realized the limitations of this idea and some dispute whether early media theorists gave the idea any serious attention at all. Nevertheless, The Hypodermic Needle Theory continues to influence the way we talk about the media. People believe that the mass media has a powerful effect. Parents worry about the influence of television and violent video games. News outlets run headlines like 'Is Google making us stupid' and 'Grand Theft Auto led teen to kill'.

So how did this way of thinking about the mass media develop? Back in 1927, Harold Lasswell - an American political scientist and communication theorist - published a book called Propaganda Technique in the World War. Writing about the effect of Allied propaganda during World War I, Lasswell wrote: "From a propaganda point of view it was a matchless performance, for Wilson brewed the subtle poison, which industrious men injected into the veins of a staggering people, until the smashing powers of the Allied armies knocked them into submission."

The Payne Fund Studies, which were conducted between 1929-1932 and looked at the effect movies have on children, also contributed to this idea that the mass media has a powerful and direct influence on audiences. Although these studies have been criticised for their lack of scientific rigor, they were really one of the first and most comprehensive examinations of how the media works. Writing about the influence of movies, the project chairman WW Charters wrote that they have the potential to profoundly affect the way children behave. Even in the 1930s, however, researchers were starting to realise that this way of thinking about media influence was kind of inadequate.

Then, in 1938, Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre broadcast a dramatization of HG Wells' War of the Worlds. The program, which was presented in the format of a news bulletin, caused some listeners to believe that Earth was being invaded by martians. The New York Times claimed that thousands of people were gripped by mass hysteria. While thousands of people may have been "panic-stricken", they were only a small proportion of the six million people who enjoyed a quiet night around the radio.

On the surface, events like these seem to suggest that the media can have a powerful influence on audiences. Nevertheless, The Hypodermic Needle Theory is kind of inadequate to describe communication and media influence. It just doesn't work.

Further reading

University of Twente: Hypodermic Needle Theory
Wikipedia: The Hypodermic Needle Model
Audience Theory: An Introduction

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Today, we're talking about the Hypodermic Needle Theory which was one of the earliest ways of thinking about how the mass media influences audiences. It was developed in the 1920s and 1930s after researchers observed the effect of propaganda during World War I and events like Orson Welles' War of the Worlds broadcast.

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The view that the media has the ability to mesmerise, influence and even control its audiences has its roots firmly in the early 20th century. Then new communication technology in the form of moving pictures, the gramophone and radio expanded the mass media previously occupied by newspapers.

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On an October evening in 1938, millions of people settled down to enjoy what had recently become a great American pastime: listening to the radio. This night, however, would prove to be unique. Listeners tuned in to hear an announcement that Martians had landed in New Jersey and were viciously attacking humans. Although the announcement was part of a radio adaptation of H. G. Wells' famous novel War of the Worlds-and although listeners were warned that the broadcast was fictional-panic erupted within the population. Some people fled homes and cities, while others rushed to purchase emergency supplies and began stockpiling food. Thousands of frantic phone calls poured in to local police, firefighters and hospitals.

The incident, often referred to as the "Panic Broadcast," was soon cited as an example of the Hypodermic Needle Theory of communication. Formed in response to the rise of mass communications and the emergence of propaganda techniques in the 1930s, Hypodermic Needle Theory implies that the media has the power to inject highly influential messages directly into passive and susceptible audiences. Since those audiences have no other sources of information by which to compare the media's messages, they have no choice but to act on those messages. The theory is known by other names as well: Magic Bullet Theory, Transmission-Belt Model and Hypodermic-Syringe Model.

Unlike most other theories of communication, however, Hypodermic Needle Theory was not based on empirical research. Instead, it was founded on the assumption that humans, controlled by their biological nature, will react instinctively to passing stimuli in similar ways. Empirical research has since disproved the theory and replaced it with more sophisticated models, such as Agenda-Setting Theory.

Assumptions

Hypodermic Needle Theory promotes a few basic assumptions:

1. Humans react uniformly to stimuli.
2. The media's message is directly "injected" into the "bloodstream" of a population like fluid from a syringe.
3. Messages are strategically created to achieve desired responses.
4. The effects of the media's messages are immediate and powerful, capable of causing significant behavioral change in humans.
5. The public is powerless to escape the media's influence.

History

As radio, movies and advertisements gained vast popularity between the 1930s and 1950s, the media's effects on people's behavior seemed all too apparent and, in some cases, extremely frightening. Newspaper and magazine ads spurred on American consumerism, drawing even thrifty people into glittering department stores. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's radio speeches, known as the "fireside chats," inspired millions of citizens to support his New Deal policies in the wake of the Great Depression. Adolf Hitler used the media to spread Nazi propaganda in Germany, creating a unified force bent on conquering Europe. To the common observer, people truly seemed powerless to resist the messages that came from the media. For the first time, messages were crafted with the target audience in mind to achieve specific responses.

During this time, behavioral scholars began to study the media's effects in earnest. Hypodermic Needle Theory was one of the first models to result from these early studies. However, the theory relied on traditional inductive reasoning with observation to support it, rather than modern deductive reasoning backed by methodical testing. Scholars were still trying to establish empirical methods for testing behavioral theories at the time.

"The People's Choice"

One of the first studies that disproved Hypodermic Needle Theory was "The People's Choice," conducted by researchers Paul Lazarsfeld and Herta Herzog in the 1940s. The study analyzed the effects of media propaganda on people's voting decisions. Lazarsfeld and Herzog examined voting data during the 1940 election of Franklin D. Roosevelt and discovered that interpersonal sources of opinion influenced voters far more than the media did. In many cases, the media's propaganda had no effect on the public at all.

The study proved that people could choose which messages to accept from the media, as well as determine the degree to which those messages would affect them. People weren't the helpless, passive victims of the media as Hypodermic Needle Theory suggested. From his research, Lazarsfeld, along with Elihu Katz, developed the two-step flow model of communication, stating that the media's messages are first received and interpreted by opinion leaders before they reach the general public. Even the "Panic Broadcast" incident used to support Hypodermic Needle Theory was re-evaluated and declared to show diverse reactions among listeners.

The Rise of Selective Exposure

Although Hypodermic Needle Theory was instrumental in jump-starting communications research of mass media, it has since faded into obsolescence. With so many sources of information available today through a variety of media outlets, people have more control than ever over the messages that influence them. Many people now exercise selective exposure-seeking out only the information that supports their worldview. Though the media is still very influential today, its influence is far more complex and nuanced than in the early days of mass communication. People can now interact with the media through social networking sites and can even direct the flow of information to others. Factors such as attitudes, beliefs, education and living situation determine whether a person will accept a message from the media. Still, in spite of the media's overwhelming presence in society, the biggest source of information and influence in a person's life continues to be interpersonal relationships.

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On an October evening in 1938, millions of people settled down to enjoy what had recently become a great American pastime: listening to the radio. This night, however, would prove to be unique. Listeners tuned in to hear an announcement that Martians had landed in New Jersey and were viciously attacking humans.

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The cultural theorist, Stuart Hall, explored how people make sense of media texts and claimed audiences were active not passive .

An active audience engages, interprets and responds to a media text in different ways and is capable of challenging the ideas encoded in it.

A passive audience is more likely to accept the messages encoded in a media text without challenge and are therefore more likely to be directly affected by the messages.

He suggested three main responses an audience may have to a media text:

Reading

Description

Preferred reading

When the audience responds to the ideas in the way the media producer wants them to. For a programme like The Voice UK or The X Factor this could be large scale audience voting and the purchase of the winning singer's single.

Negotiated reading

When the audience responds by accepting and rejecting certain elements. Perhaps voting for the underdog in a talent competition or questioning the programme via social media platforms.

Oppositional reading

When the audience understands the preferred reading but choses to oppose it. For instance, the campaign to stop the winner of The X Factor getting to Christmas number one in the charts.

There are a number of different readings an audience could have for a programme like The Voice UK

Uses and gratification theory

The Uses and Gratifications Theory suggests there are certain reasons why an audience responds to different media texts:

Entertainment and diversion

Audiences consume media texts to escape from their everyday lives. They choose entertaining texts that allow them to divert their attention from the real world, perhaps by watching a fantasy film like Harry Potter or reading a fashion magazine like .

Information and education

Some media texts are consumed by audiences when they want to be informed and educated. Newspapers, news programmes and current affairs documentaries educate and inform. They help the audience to find out what is happening in the world.

Social interaction

Some media texts like The X Factor or I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here provoke interaction with the audience. Social media can now spark an immediate reaction and get people talking while the action is still happening.

Personal identity

Some audiences like to watch or read media texts because they can compare their life experiences with those represented in it. Audience pleasure comes from empathising and identifying with characters or content represented in them. Soap operas or lifestyle magazines can offer audiences this kind of enjoyment.

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BBC Bitesize - GCSE Media Studies - Audience appeal - Revision 3

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The cultural theorist, Stuart Hall, explored how people make sense of media texts and claimed audiences were active not passive . An active audience engages, interprets and responds to a media text in different ways and is capable of challenging the ideas encoded in it.

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Revision

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Powerpoint

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Revision Info

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Digital V Analogue, Synergy, Platforms, Convergence, Interactivity

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Digital V Analogue, Synergy, Platforms, Convergence, Interactivity

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Revision and worksheet

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Various

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Key Terms

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Home Alone

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Welcome to the Media @ SHLA Revision page for the First Award in Creative Digital Media Production!