Hypodermic Needle Theory Analysis

The earliest effects theory is known as the hypodermic needle theory. The approach considers the relationships between the media product and its audience, believing ideas are directly intercepted into the audience’s ideologies, which leads them to form an opinion of the text. Hypodermic needle theory is seen to be an example of passive audience theory, which incorporates the approach of audiences absorbing ideas from the consumed media product, however they do not engage with them very much and believe what they see or read. Hypodermic needle theory is usually much centred around the impact that the media product has on the audience.

An example that can link to this theory is video games. High age-rated games such as GTA (Grant Theft Auto) find themselves being labelled as violent and has even been tied with possibly contributing towards violent behaviour from individuals. This can also be said for the likes of horror movies, such as Chucky or Child’s Play. The ideology about video games and the violent impact they can have on young individuals was especially tied to the story of James Bulger, who was brutally tortured and murdered on a train line by two 10-year old boys. It is believed that these two individuals had watched Child’s Play, which could have possibly influenced their behaviour and the actions towards Bulger, who was barely 2 years old at the time of his brutal and truly shocking murder that rocked Britain and the World. By it being advertised and promoted within the media about the dangers of video games and horror films, people such as parents would view this as being able to shape their child’s behaviour and possibly even do something violent, like how the unthinkable happened with the boys who tortured James Bulger. This is classic hypodermic needle theory as people reading the likes of headlines which were against video games due to the suspected influence, would not read into it and would believe what they have seen, since at the time of Bulger’s death in the 1990s, the media was very much believed to publish the truth and anything that was advertised was real and wasn’t fake, so people formed this ideology about video games and horror films, believing that they did have an impact on children’s behaviour and was able to influence how they would act and think, even though there was no scientific evidence to prove this was true- people and parents just believed what they heard and assumed the opinion that it was true, despite having no evidence to back up the assumption and opinion of what journalists and newspapers were posting.

Another example that can end up linking to hypodermic needle theory is the 1938 radio broadcast of drama, War of the Worlds. Despite being announced at the start of the broadcast that it was clearly a drama and was not real life, citizens were soon led to believe that the World was under attack by Martians and was being invaded, causing the deaths of several hundred people. People were most likely panicked by the broadcast and feared it was reality, due to a series of seemingly live news bulletins which sounded very realistic and much like ordinary news bulletins that were broadcast regularly on the radio. To make things worse, if citizens had ended up tuning into the broadcast after the announcement, then they would have not known that it was a radio broadcast and not in fact real life, so they would have formed the view and ideology that it was real what was being “reported” and would have caused fears amongst the public, who did not read into the broadcast or engage with it and just assumed that aliens were causing an invasion on human life on Earth, here to take over and kill people.

The effects theory creates the suggestion that it would be wrong to suggest that mass media has no overall effect on the people or the audience that consume the media product. Media’s positive effects are not studied very often, but have certainly been found to exist in some ways. An example that can relate to this is the central BBC remit, with its educational component. It was originally set up as a way to engage 3 main purposes with an audience- educate, inform and entertain. The central BBC remit was created and established by Lord Reith. He would broadcast different, annual lectures with a famous person voicing over each one. Lord Reith’s lectures still exist in the present day, having been established in 1948, with Bertrand Russell providing the first lecture. Other speakers have included Grayson Perry in 2013 and Stephen Hawking in 2016. Lord Reith’s BBC remit lectures relate to the effects theory and hypodermic needle theory in the sense that it was created with the intention to educate and inform, yet it can have no effect on its audience which is confusing as it defeats the whole purpose and intention of the media product that Lord Reith established and promoted.  

Finally, another element that embodies the hypodermic needle theory would be the Belstaff Milford Coat. It was worn by Benedict Cumberbatch in the TV series, Sherlock and following the first broadcast of the series, the coat ended up selling out rapidly. A magazine company ended up publishing a series of online articles that were about mainly British brands of clothing worn by the actors. It’s difficult to explain the link to hypodermic needle theory in this case, since the spike in sales of the coat means that the product must have had some sort of effect on audiences, if they have read into how to purchase the coat. However, what we can infer is that there is a direct relationship to be identified between the audience and the product in this case, since the idea of the style of the coat has been implanted into the audience’s mind, leading them to form an opinion of the product and in this particularly case, the coat. Hypodermic needle theory is incorporated as the audience do not seem to engage that much with the product, they just believe what they see and like the look of the coat, so they choose to purposely buy it due their formed opinion of the product, which will have occurred amongst many of the audience and hypodermic needle theory links to this due to focusing mainly on the impact it has on the audience.