The Hypodermic Needle Theory was created in the 1930's and is an audience theory based on a mass audience, that audience being passive. The idea of the hypodermic needle theory is that the mass audience recieve the same message that is 'injected' in to their minds and they all beleive the same message, this messgae is powerful, direct and immediate. The injected message is an appropriate message 'injected' in order to produce a desired response. This theory expresses the view that the media is powerful and the audience are powerless to resist the impact of the message. The audience are reffered to as a 'Sitting Duck' and end up believing the message simply because there is no other information. An example of this is the propoganda in the 1st world war. The only souce of information was the radio therefore what the radio aired is what the public was lead to believe. It could be argued that the Hypodermic Needle theory is still in place today within the media through 'reality' TV shows such as TOWIE.
The hypodermic needle theory is criticed for being simplisitic and not taking into account individual differences. The theory is deterministic and it did not allow the freedom of choice, in addition the theory is not based on empirical findings.
The influence of the media on a mass audience largely effects those who are vunerable and those who may follow celebrities in reality shows such as TOWIE. The way in which the woman of TOWIE dress and act influences the likes of young teenagers and young adults who aspire to looks and be like the media role models they see on screen. Being exposed to the lives of these celebrities and seeing them find love and fortune makes the audience believe that this is how you have to look and act in order to find love, success and fortune.
All of these woman from the TOWIE cast are thin, big busted, tanned and have a full face of make up every day, they wear false eyelashes and are all beautiful in the eyes of the media. The influence of TOWIE on the media has increased saled in false tan, false eyelashes, extensions and the famous essex origin of the 'vajazzle'. This shows the hypodermic needle theory in action today, the mass media are reciving the message that this is what you have to look like in order to find love and fortune and young girls, teenagers and adults are responding by buying products that will make them look this way.
HOW THE THEORY RELATES TO MY WORK
The Hypodermic needle theory may come into action when an audience watch my music video as they may understand the message behind my music video of acting without thinking has consequences that may be irreversible influencing them to always think before acting. However, it could also go the opposite way and the audience may decode the wrong message and think that violence is the answer to a situation that you do not like. This is not what is intended from my music video and to avoid this mass assumption I shall make sure the message is captioned in my finished music video when uploaded to YouTube.
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