The hypodermic needle theory

The Hypodermic Needle Theory which was one of the earliest ways of thinking about how the mass media influences audiences. It was developed in the 1920s and 1930s after researchers observed the effect of propaganda during World War I and events like Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds broadcast. The Hypodermic Needle Theory is a linear communication theory which suggests that media messages are injected directly into the brains of a passive audience. It suggests that we’re all the same and we all respond to media messages in the same way.
This way of thinking about communication and media influence is no longer really accepted. In the 1930s, many researchers realized the limitations of this idea and some dispute whether early media theorists gave the idea any serious attention at all. Nevertheless, The Hypodermic Needle Theory continues to influence the way we talk about the media. People believe that the mass media has a powerful effect. Parents worry about the influence of television and violent video games. News outlets run headlines like ‘Is Google making us stupid’ and ‘Grand Theft Auto led teen to kill’.
So how did this way of thinking about the mass media develop? Back in 1927, Harold Lasswell – an American political scientist and communication theorist – published a book called Propaganda Technique in the World War. Writing about the effect of Allied propaganda during World War I, Lasswell wrote: “From a propaganda point of view it was a matchless performance, for Wilson brewed the subtle poison, which industrious men injected into the veins of a staggering people, until the smashing powers of the Allied armies knocked them into submission.”