Hypodermic Needle Theory

The Hypodermic needle theory

Is a linear communication theory that suggests that media messages are injected directly into the brains of ‘passive’ audiences.
In this theory the media is seen as powerful and able to ‘inject’ ideas into an audience who are seen as weak and passive and could be influenced by a message.

This theory was...

• the first attempt to explain how mass audiences might react to mass media.
• developed in an age when the mass media were still fairly new - radio and cinema were less than two decades old.
• Governments had just discovered the power of advertising to communicate a message, and produced propaganda to try and sway audiences to their way of thinking.

This theory basically says that the intelligence and opinion of an individual are not relevant to the reception of the text. It is thought that as an audience, the creators of media texts manipulate us, and that our behavior and thinking might be easily changed the people who are making the media. 

Passive Audience

Is the idea that the media ‘injects’ ideas and views directly into the brains of the audience like a hypodermic needle, therefore, controlling the way that people think and behave. 

A passive audience

• does not actively engage with a media text.
• does not question the message that the media is sending
• simply accepts the message in the way the media outlet intended