The hypodermic needle theory regards the audience as passive and the power of media messages strong and that media influences people to behave in a certain way. The effects debate is the argument that the media has the potential to influence an audience, to affect them in negative ways, and that there is a need to protect people from material which might cause harm of one kind or another. The messages in the media are injected into the audience like a drug, but they don’t notice the effects that it has on them. The effects of messages in the media tend to be associated with bad behavior, and negative actions, especially regarding sex and violence. An example of this is the Sandy Hook Shooting, where the boy’s ruthless actions were blamed on the influence of the game Call of Duty by the New York Times, which he supposedly spent a lot of time playing alone in his basement.
The hypodermic needle theory is also known as the hypodermic-syringe model of communications, and is referred to as the magic bullet theory. It implied mass media had a direct, immediate and powerful effect on its audiences. The mass media in the 1940s and 1950s was perceived as a powerful influence on behaviour change, yet according to Katz and Lazarfeld (1955), the model is rooted in 1930s behaviorism and is concerned by many to be obsolete today. The hypodermic needle model suggests that media messages are injected straight into a passive audience which is immediately influenced by the message. The study known as ‘The Bobo Doll Experiment’ proved that children copy adult’s actions – they watched adults abusing life sized dolls in laboratory conditions, and then mimicked this behaviour later when playing. This showed that children will replicate what they see adult’s doing, which would imply that they’d imitate what they see them doing in the media – such as shooting in games, or swearing in films.
The people who focus on the effects of the hypodermic needle theory tend to centre their concerns around children, and how they could be influenced by the media. One effect that is a concern is that the media is making children desensitised to violence – children will have no reaction to aggressive behaviour, and will think it normal. Another effect is catharsis; concerning that kid’s will release strong or repressed emotions in a vicious way, and will lash out at people. The final worry, and probably the most pressing, is that they will imitate ferocious actions they see on TV, in films or in games. An example of this would be the James Bulger murder – the boys seemed to be copying actions from the film “Childs Play 3”, which their father had rented months prior to the events.
Other case studies than the ones previously mentioned are the Hungerford Massacre, and the Columbine High School Massacre. Press reports of the Hungerford Massacre stated that the man was obsessed with the Rambo film First Blood, which was described as featuring similar events. Violent video games and music were blamed for the killers’ actions in the Columbine High School Massacre. All of the cases were scapegoated on media texts, when few were proven to be true. For example, there was no proof that the boys in the James Bulger murder actually had watched Childs Play 3, just as there was no evidence that the killer in the Hungerford Massacre even owned a video recorder, or that he had seen the film. This proves that people will find any reason they can to blame media influence for violent actions of people, even when the evidence is clearly stating against that. This suggests that the Hypodermic needle theory is just another way of scapegoating catastrophic events such as the case studies mentioned.
The hypodermic needle theory is credible, as case studies show that people behave violently due to influence from the media – such as the Sandy Hook shooting, as the boy was said to have spent most of his time in his basement alone, in which he played Call of Duty. The ‘Bobo Doll Experiment’ also proves the theory, as it shows that children will mimic what they see adults to be doing such as shooting in films or on TV. However, a lot of the case studies used scapegoats as reasons for violent behaviour, as some media that the events were blamed on actually had no relevance to the cases. In my personal opinion, the hypodermic needle is not credible with regards to the effects debate, as there is no proof that it is solely the media that influences people to act negatively. The ‘Bobo Doll Experiment’ only proves that children replicate adult’s actions, not necessarily what they see in the media.