Hypodermic Needle Theory

The Hypodermic Needle theory suggests that the media 'injects' information into a passive audience, using reinforcement. By reinforcing ideas through the use of mass media, the media are able to manipulate and persuade audiences even if they are not aware of it.

The Hypodermic Needle Theory can be seen as the reason for change in the way women perceive themselves and how they believe they should look. Shows ranging from 90210 to Desperate Housewives (teens to adults), portray women as being flawless, skinny and near enough perfect. When an audience watches such shows they move from being an active audience who are watching the programme for entertainment, to a passive audience who become unaware of the fact that not everyday women look like this, and see the women on the programme as 'normal' and aspire to look like them, completely oblivious to the fact that the programme is edited and the actors are put in make up and costume to make them look a certain way. This constant influence from the mass media (magazines, films, adverts) as to how women should look often pressurises women into wanting to look a certain way. For instance research by psychologists found that "women's magazines contained 10.5 times as many diet promotions as men's magazines'his doesn't let the public have their own view but instead manipulates their opinions of what women should look like, Pressurising today's women into looking a certain way. Not only do women feel that they have to look a certain way but now more than ever men feel the same way. Magazines such as 'GQ' and 'Mens Health' portray men as being muscled, successful and young. This pressurises men into wanting to conform to the image of men that the media has created.

The Hypodermic Needle Theory is often seen in the media to help sell services or products. An example of this would be the Go Compare advert, which started of as this very annoying advert. The company cleverly played on this annoyance and used it as away to market their service. It is because of this reinforcing of the advert that the public find it hard to forget it and so this increases the popularity on the company.

Mass media and Hypodermic needle theory often are combined in the media to give a stronger influence over an audience. For example trailers shown in a cinema before a film starts. If an audience had gone in to watch an action film, trailers shown before the film would be of the same genre , in this case action trailers from films such as 'Skyfall' , 'Looper' and 'Argo'. This is done so that it is aimed at a mass audience who are likely to watch the film and is addressing a passive audience who are often persuaded into coming back and watching the films they had seen in the trailers.

Mass media is also influential in presenting the news. News channels such as Channel 4, Fox and BBC are often bias when presenting the news, not only are they bias but tend to exaggerate stories more than necessary, an example of this would be the 'Swine Flu' story which was described as being deadly and very serious. In this story the media also used the Hypodermic Needle Theory by drip feeding passive audience bits of information about 'Swine Flu', until they reached a peak in which they unravelled the story. The same can be said about the 'Baby P' and 'Madeline' stories. This exaggeration is often done because negative news is the most popular amongst viewers and is of the most interest as it shocks or grips the audience's attention. This exaggeration and bias presentation of the news had led to a rise in citizen journalism, through photos, videos and even blogs. Although citizen journalism is likely to be bias to a person's opinion it is less likely to be exaggerated and if someone wanted to confirm something that was on the news, the best way to do this is to keep their sources of information varied; this includes citizen journalism and different news channels.