Beginnings of media theory

• The earliest ideas about media developed in the second half of the nineteenth century, at a time
when rapid development of large factories in urban areas was drawing more and more people from
rural areas to cities.
• Industrialization refers to use of machine power in the process of production and in the modern
sense it refers to the construction of big factories.
• Urbanization refers to the movement of rural population flow into cities and the growth of cities.. It
refers to the processes by which (1) urban values are diffused, (2) movement occurs from rural
areas to cities, and (3) behaviour patterns are transformed to conform to those which are
characteristic of groups in the cities.
• At this time newspaper started to be sold at declining prices to rapidly growing populations of
readers.
• Although some theorists were optimistic about the future that would be created by
industrialization, urban expansion, and the rise of print media, many were extremely pessimistic.
• Penny press: Newspapers that sold for one penny (one cent) and earned profits through the sale of
increased numbers of readers to advertisers.
With the introduction of the New York Sun on September 3, 1833, the era of the “penny press” was begun.
Yellow journalism: Newspaper reporting catering to working and other lower social class audiences using
simple, often sensational content.
Yellow journalism: sensationalistic reporting of the nineteenth century.
Use of sensational photos and story selections, large headlines, sometimes fake interviews.
Hypodermic Needle/ Magic Bullet Theory
• Harold Lasswell (1927) is the first modern mass communication theorist and researcher. Lasswell
developed an innovative theory of the effect of mass communication during World War I. He based
his theory of mass communication on 'hypodermic needle' model.
• He observed mass media as an effective way of persuading audience for political leaders such as
Hitler, Roosevelt, Stalin, and Mussolini.
• HYPODERMIC NEEDLE THEORY The theory that suggests that the media 'inject' ideas into a passive
audience, like giving a patient a drug.
• The theory emphasizes the power of media images to inject certain attitudes and ideas into the
minds of audience members.
• Under these circumstances, people receive and interpret media messages in a similar way.
Therefore, mass communication can influence people's thoughts and behaviors immediately and
effectively.
• So the theory implies the idea that the mass media are so powerful that they can 'inject' their
messages into the audience, or that, like a magic bullet, they can be precisely targeted at an
audience, who irresistibly fall down when hit by the bullet.
• In brief, it is the idea that the makers of media messages can get us to do whatever they want us to
do.
 War of the Worlds (aka the Panic Broadcast)
• The classic example of the application of the Hypodermic Needle Theory (Magic Bullet Theory) was
illustrated on October 30, 1938 when Orson Welles and the newly formed Mercury Theater group
broadcasted their radio edition of H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds.” (Orson Welles
• On the eve of Halloween, radio programming was interrupted with a "news bulletin" for the first
time. What the audience heard was that Martians had begun an invasion of Earth in a place called
Grover's Mill, New Jersey.
People fled their city homes to seek shelter in more rural areas, raided grocery stores and began to ration
food. The nation was in a state of chaos, and this broadcast was the cause of it. (that is why it is
remembered as the panic broadcast)
• It became known as the "Panic Broadcast”. Approximately 12 million people in the United States
heard the broadcast and about one million of those actually believed that a serious alien invasion
was underway.
• Media theorists have classified the "War of the Worlds" broadcast as the classical example of the
Magic Bullet Theory.
• This is exactly how the theory worked, by injecting the message directly into the "bloodstream" of
the public, attempting to create a uniform thinking.
• The effects of the broadcast suggested that the media could manipulate a passive and gullible
(easily deceived or cheated) public.
• Theorists believed that this was one of the primary ways media authors shaped audience
perception.
• Although the hypodermic needle theory is generally discredited, another more recent example that
showed the huge effect of media on people is the example of Radio Rwanda during the civil war in
1994.
• Rwanda was a society that was heavily dependent on radio as a medium in the early 1990s.
• Radio was used to broadcast ethnic hate propaganda, provoking Hutus to commit atrocities against
their Tutsi neighbors.
• The upshot was a disastrous civil war that claimed the lives of nearly a million Rwandans.
Hypodermic needle theory
• To summarize:
• Hypodermic needle theory suggests that all members of an audience ‘read’ a text the same way
and get the same things out of it. The metaphor of a hypodermic needle is a reference to how
media are assumed to be injecting all audience members with the same message.
Weaknesses of hypodermic needle theory
• Hypodermic theory is no longer accepted by most communication researchers, stating that unlike
the theory’s perception audiences are not homogeneous and audiences are not passive. Rather:
• audiences are selective in their choices of media to consume,
• individuals interpret given texts in a variety of different ways, and,
• even play a role in creating texts.