The Hypodermic Needle Model

The hypodermic needle model is a model of communications which dates back to the 1920’s. This theory was the first attempt to explain how mass audiences might react to mass media products.

 It implied that mass media had a direct, immediate and powerful effect on their audiences. Several factors contributed to the strong effects of communication, including: the fast rise and popularization of radio and television (just when mass media was still fairly new), the emergence of the persuasion industries, such as advertising and propaganda. They produced propaganda to try and sway people to their way of thinking.

Basically, the Hypodermic Needle Model suggests that the information from a media product is passed into the mass consciousness of the audience with out them knowing. For example someone else’s views and opinions can be fed to us unknowingly, and we adopt these views and opinions. This theory suggests that, as an audience, we are manipulated by the creators of media, and that our behaviour and thinking might be easily changed by the media. The theory suggests that most things that we see read or hear from media sources, we adopt. This can be dangerous for example someone watching a violent programme unknowingly takes in the violence and then rein acts out the violence which they have seen. The theory can also suggest that everyone who takes in the media product will end up having the same views, opinions, likes and dislikes. This can be both and advantage and disadvantage; it will be easier to make media products as everyone will like similar things, however it can be bad as every media product create will become repetitive and be harder to create original ideas as most of them would have already been created.