media effect
Hypodermic Needle Theory of Communication
Hypodermic Needle Theory, also known as Magic Bullet Theory (hypodermic syringe model or transmission-belt model) was promulgated by Harold Lasswell in 1920s. It was written in the book “Propaganda Technique” in the World War.
The theory is a linear model of communication and talks about media’s power on audience. The message, in this theory, is said to be like a magic bullet which enters the minds of audience and injects a particular message. The theory explains how media controls what the audience views and listens to and the effects, which can be immediate or later in future.
The words bullet and needle are used to show the powerlessness of the audience as media impacts public opinion and behavior change. The theory was also influenced by media behaviorism of 1930s.
The “Magic Bullet” theory graphically assumes that the media’s message is a bullet fired from the “media gun” into the viewer’s “head”.
-Berger, 1995
Hypodermic Needle Theory, also known as Magic Bullet Theory (hypodermic syringe model or transmission-belt model) was promulgated by Harold Lasswell in 1920s. It was written in the book “Propaganda Technique” in the World War.
The theory is a linear model of communication and talks about media’s power on audience. The message, in this theory, is said to be like a magic bullet which enters the minds of audience and injects a particular message. The theory explains how media controls what the audience views and listens to and the effects, which can be immediate or later in future.
The words bullet and needle are used to show the powerlessness of the audience as media impacts public opinion and behavior change. The theory was also influenced by media behaviorism of 1930s.
The “Magic Bullet” theory graphically assumes that the media’s message is a bullet fired from the “media gun” into the viewer’s “head”.
-Berger, 1995
Concepts in Hypodermic Needle Theory
The popularization of mass media along with the increase in advertising industry or propaganda have affected, both positively or negatively, on audience. It is dangerous, as a huge mass is influenced directly and at the same time. Messages injected can have the desired response which can cause problems and destruction or rule and uniformity.
Audience cannot resist the received message from media and it creates a uniform thinking among people. A fixed mindset and perception is created. Even a single piece of information can cause many brain alterations and change opinions subconsciously.
Public is taken to be vulnerable as message is always infused and media is tremendously strong. The theory believes that there are no other sources of media or alternative media to compare the media’s message to. Media is the strongest at the time of crisis and in the time of war when people depend on media for all the information. The theory was said to be used in Second World War by Germany and US.
The theory is said to be based on assumptions and not empirical findings. It is based on supposition of human nature or biological nature. External stimuli are considered to encourage instincts and reactions.
“People’s Choice” is a study conducted in 1940 by Lazarsfeld about the election campaign of Franklin D. Roosevelt, which found that only few specific messages are injected to the audience by media. People are more influenced by interpersonal communication.
The popularization of mass media along with the increase in advertising industry or propaganda have affected, both positively or negatively, on audience. It is dangerous, as a huge mass is influenced directly and at the same time. Messages injected can have the desired response which can cause problems and destruction or rule and uniformity.
Audience cannot resist the received message from media and it creates a uniform thinking among people. A fixed mindset and perception is created. Even a single piece of information can cause many brain alterations and change opinions subconsciously.
Public is taken to be vulnerable as message is always infused and media is tremendously strong. The theory believes that there are no other sources of media or alternative media to compare the media’s message to. Media is the strongest at the time of crisis and in the time of war when people depend on media for all the information. The theory was said to be used in Second World War by Germany and US.
The theory is said to be based on assumptions and not empirical findings. It is based on supposition of human nature or biological nature. External stimuli are considered to encourage instincts and reactions.
“People’s Choice” is a study conducted in 1940 by Lazarsfeld about the election campaign of Franklin D. Roosevelt, which found that only few specific messages are injected to the audience by media. People are more influenced by interpersonal communication.
Features of Hypodermic Needle Theory
- Humans are believed to act uniformly to their stimuli and instincts.
- Media injects or inserts messages into the people’s brain as propaganda and manipulation like that by a bullet or syringe.
- Messages have their own intention and are sent to get desired outcomes.
- The effect of messages is supposed to be encompassing, strong, immediate and dangerous.
- Messages are supposed to create public opinion and change behavior of the audiences.
- Mass of people is made to think in a similar way by the media.
- The audience is always thought to be vulnerable and passive.
- Humans are believed to act uniformly to their stimuli and instincts.
- Media injects or inserts messages into the people’s brain as propaganda and manipulation like that by a bullet or syringe.
- Messages have their own intention and are sent to get desired outcomes.
- The effect of messages is supposed to be encompassing, strong, immediate and dangerous.
- Messages are supposed to create public opinion and change behavior of the audiences.
- Mass of people is made to think in a similar way by the media.
- The audience is always thought to be vulnerable and passive.
Examples of Hypodermic Needle Theory
“Panic broadcast” was when radio adaptation of H. G. Wells’ play “War of the Worlds” was being broadcasted as radio drama in 1938 as a Halloween episode which was directed by Orson Welles. The play was presented as news bulletins. Citizens understood the play as people of other planet attacking a place in New Jersey. A large group of population believed the broadcast and the message of alien invasion caused a mass panic to millions of people.
Similarly, in Second World War, the German leaders used movie industry to show their power in the world and unify the people for war in 1940s. Later, U.S. also used their own movie industry to create negative image of the Germans and portray them as evil. They justified their actions to their own people with the help of media. News is often bias and exaggerating too.
The gender role concept has also been injected in every person’s mind. According to it, all women must be thin, tall, fair, romantic and things like that. The brain takes information from advertisements and changes our opinions in a subconscious level without us realizing it. Media has been changing the self image of every person.
“Panic broadcast” was when radio adaptation of H. G. Wells’ play “War of the Worlds” was being broadcasted as radio drama in 1938 as a Halloween episode which was directed by Orson Welles. The play was presented as news bulletins. Citizens understood the play as people of other planet attacking a place in New Jersey. A large group of population believed the broadcast and the message of alien invasion caused a mass panic to millions of people.
Similarly, in Second World War, the German leaders used movie industry to show their power in the world and unify the people for war in 1940s. Later, U.S. also used their own movie industry to create negative image of the Germans and portray them as evil. They justified their actions to their own people with the help of media. News is often bias and exaggerating too.
The gender role concept has also been injected in every person’s mind. According to it, all women must be thin, tall, fair, romantic and things like that. The brain takes information from advertisements and changes our opinions in a subconscious level without us realizing it. Media has been changing the self image of every person.
Criticisms of Hypodermic Needle Theory
- The message flow is always from sender to receiver or top to bottom.
- The audience is passive and susceptible and are easily influenced by the message which might not be true every time. But the reactions of people differ. Some people can be passive whereas some people might not believe in media.
- The theory has been proved to fail by many studies like “The People’s Choice” research for voting pattern and political behavior during the time of Franklin D. Roosevelt. The study showed that the pattern was affected by media in minimum amount but was more affected by interpersonal communication. Studies show that media has selective influence on mass.
- The theory is not taken as empirical (verifiable by observation or experience rather than theory or pure logic).
- There are many media options with the growth of media outlets today. The theory is not applicable in today’s world.
- The message flow is always from sender to receiver or top to bottom.
- The audience is passive and susceptible and are easily influenced by the message which might not be true every time. But the reactions of people differ. Some people can be passive whereas some people might not believe in media.
- The theory has been proved to fail by many studies like “The People’s Choice” research for voting pattern and political behavior during the time of Franklin D. Roosevelt. The study showed that the pattern was affected by media in minimum amount but was more affected by interpersonal communication. Studies show that media has selective influence on mass.
- The theory is not taken as empirical (verifiable by observation or experience rather than theory or pure logic).
- There are many media options with the growth of media outlets today. The theory is not applicable in today’s world.
Two Step Flow Theory
History:
In 1944 Paul Lazarsfeld, (1901-1976) an American Social Researcher, Bernard Berelson (1912 – 1979) and Hazel Gaudet was introduced The Two-Step Flow of Communication in the book called “The people’s choice: How the voter makes up his mind in a presidential campaign. New York: Columbia University Press”.
Theory Introduction:
The purpose of the study was focused on Presidential election Campaign and the people decision-making process towards the campaign. All three researchers were wanted to find out practically whether the mass media messages affect direct influence in voting decision among the people. Unexpectedly they found the media messages (like radio and newspapers) are very less influence then an informal, personal communication on voting behavior. Based on this researched data, The Two Step Flow Communication Theory of Mass Communication was developed by Katz and Paul Lazarsfeld.
Opinion Leader:
Opinion Leader is a leader for a certain group who gives details and information to lesser active persons in the group. In office, the managing director is an opinion leader and in public, a political leader is an opinion leader. They interpret the information to their own group. But one thing the Opinion leader is a leader only for their own group not for all.
In Public, Political leader is an opinion leader. Here few people are not influenced by the leader and their political views and thought. These people won’t support opinion leaders and isolated from the population.
Katz and Paul seems “the flow of media messages from radio and print to opinion leaders and then the leaders leads the messages to lesser active users in the population”. Through this transformation of message, the leaders may add their opinion on the actual content which may affects the low active users. In some cases the Opinion leaders are filtering the actual content ensures the information is needed by the people. Mostly the opinion leaders are selective and they pass the messages to the group. (Low-end media users: Poor, Worker and People who are not affordable for getting information directly).
Note: The Opinion leaders have enough voice only in structured social groups not in an isolated individual in the population.
Example:
Carol watching News in ANB Channel they flash the headlines with “Research reveals some toys are leads the children’s aggressive and Violent”. That day Carol calls her little son and went for shopping and carol warn her son some toys are not good and made skin allergy which leads her son to avoid those toys.
- Opinion leader: Mom
- Audience: Her Son
- Added information in actual content: Skin Allergy
Critics:
-Researchers found substantial evidence that initial mass media information flows directly to people on the whole and is not relayed by opinion leaders.
-The two-step hypothesis does not adequately describe the flow of learning. Lazarsfeld and his associates in the 1940 election study were unable to determine the specific flow of influence.
– Today most of the advertising researches are based on this theory. Especially opinion leaders role in the society as well as in home to which helps to improve the market with less efforts
Multi-step flow theory/diffusion innovation theory
The Two Step Flow Theory gave way to the Multi Step Flow Theory. It was observed that the influence from the media can be multi directional and it is not necessarily downwards but can be upwards or even backwards to the media as well. The Two Step Flow led to the change in name basically because of the opinion leaders who are more than just a second hand. This caused the description “Multi Directional” because the multistep had to do with more than one opinion leader, they could be two, three, four, five or even six people. Many a time, the information reaching the audience is altogether different from the original piece of information. That is, opinion leaders who pass the information add their own interpretation to it giving it a new meaning and making the information distorted.
The audiences here are active because they send feedback to the media suggesting, appreciating or criticizing things or events. There is peer to peer discussion as well, where the audiences with similar opinion share insights with each other.
The multi-step flow is also called diffusion of innovations theory which gives it a new dimension and understanding. This predicts that media and interpersonal contacts provide information and influence opinion and judgment. Its focus is on the media letting out information and in a point where the audience may be thrown in imbalance because the message or information is not in consistency with their culture or beliefs. The role of the opinion leaders come to play whereby they engage in face-to-face explanation with the people either to advise them or help them get cognition.
In 1995, Everett Rogers studying how innovation occurs, argued that innovation consist of four stages which are invention, diffusion (communication through social system), time and consequences. Diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over a period of time among the members of a social system. An innovation is an idea, product or practice that is perceived to be new by an individual. Communication is the process in which participants create and share information with one another to reach a mutual understanding.
Strength of multi-step flow theory
1. Information travels fast and gets to everyone in the society.
2. Everyone participants actively in the communication process.
Weaknesses of multi-step flow theory
1. Misinterpretation and distortion of information or messages. Since messages gets to opinion leaders first, they add, subtract and change the meaning of the intended message from the media and send messages they deem important for consumption by the opinion followers.
Conclusion
It important to note that both two-step flow and multi-step flow theories clearly discredit the direct influence of mass media because of the extraneous influence, interpersonal channels and social relations of audience which are often complex, multi directional and multi- dimensional.
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