Dr. Mass Media: How the Hypodermic Needle Theory is Still Present
Have you ever wondered what the hypodermic needle theory is in regards to mass media? This theory was created by Harold Lasswell in the 1920s and is also known as the Magic Bullet Theory. To put it simply, this theory involves two parties, which are the media and the audience. According to Mr. Sinn, the media provides or “injects” information to the audience and the audience “absorbs” and then reacts to this information. In his video about the hypodermic needle theory, he explains that this theory originated for people looking at propaganda and how they are consuming and reacting to it as well.
While the hypodermic needle theory was more commonly seen back in the early days of the mass media, I believe that it is still present to some extent today. Growing up with the Internet and rapidly evolving technology, this has helped me open my eyes and understand more about what the mass media can do to influence an individual or group of people. Having access to these new technologies and the Internet has helped me research on my own to form my own opinions from numerous reliable resources. Nevertheless, I do know that I could still be swayed by an opinion leader. For example, I follow many different kinds of social media influencers on YouTube and Instagram and I do recognize that they could potentially influence me to consider the marketing products they are using or even their opinions on topics around the world. Being able to grow up with the evolution of mass media has helped me notice the ways that the media can be harmful and can still present propaganda today.
One way that the hypodermic needle theory is still present is through scams. Whether it is through a phone call, text message, or email and more, the media can influence people to release personal information. A recent example happened to Yvonne Lehman. She received a Facebook Message from a relative saying she won an award and then had to pay $500 to secure the package, then pay $5,000 in taxes, and then had to pay custom and border fees. Lehman realized that this ultimately was a scam and contacted the relative who she received the message from, who had no idea her account was hacked. This example shows the potential damage those mass messages being sent out through Facebook Messenger can cause to those who are not aware of scams or getting hacked. People just assume that this is an ordinary message coming from their friends and making the messages look believable for people to just accept the message and moving on.
Another example of how the hypodermic needle theory is currently present is through the COVID-19 pandemic with the numerous variants that are becoming noticed. With the Omicron variant spreading like wildfire, it took charge on social media where people were constantly talking about the spread of the new variant compared to the Delta variant. This got people worried about the holiday season, causing everyone to get a test to see if they were positive with the “new” variant. Julia Reinstein, a worker at BuzzFeed, tweeted the following:
This tweet shows that the new wave of COVID-19 has created a new way of exemplifying the hypodermic needle theory that people are seeing information on social media and accepting and reacting to it rather than taking the steps of researching more about the variant through numerous resources.
One final example of how this theory is still present today is the use of artificial intelligence to help stop the spread of misinformation. Steven Smith, a staff member from MIT, has been a part of a team that has developed the Reconnaissance of Influence Operations (RIO) program, with the goal of the program “to create a system that would automatically detect disinformation narratives as well as those individuals who are spreading the narratives within social media networks.” The RIO system has about 96 percent precision. Also, RIO is planned to be used by the government and various forms of media besides social, such as television and newspapers. The ways that technology is being developed to help stop the spread of disinformation through the media is a great step towards learning more about who is spreading disinformation today, what kinds of information they are spreading, and why they are choosing to spread it.
