HYPODERMIC NEEDLE THEORY

The ‘Hypodermic Needle Theory’ is a theory which is the belief of a piece of media having a strong, powerful effect on its audience. 1940s and 1950s main media was seen as having a dominant influence on behaviour change. Factors that are consistent with the theory are; the fast rise and popularization of radio and television, the occurrence of the inducement industries (advertising and propaganda for example), the Payne Fund studies of the 1930s, which focused on the impact of motion pictures on children and Hitler’s monopolization of the mass media during WWII to unify the German public behind the Nazi party.

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