The hypodermic needle theory was developed in the 1920's and 1930's, it implied that mass media was responsible for injecting powerful messages into the passive receiver, and for impacting on behavioural choices. The sheer effect the mass media through communication began with issues such as:
- Advertising and Propaganda industries emerging.
- The popularisation of radio and television
- Orsen Welles war of the worlds broadcast. mass hysteria - small proportion.
- Hitler's monopolisation of the mass media during WWII to unify the German public behind the Nazi party.
- Also the 'Payne Fund' studies which suggested the impact of motion pictures on children.
The magic bullet theory is also a very powerful theory which assumes that 'The media's message is a bullet fired from the "media gun" into the viewer's "head"' (Berger 1995). This theory was based on assumptions of the time about human nature.
People were assumed to be "uniformly controlled by their biologically based 'instincts' and that they react more or less uniformly to whatever 'stimuli' came along" (Lowery & De Fleur, 1995, p. 400)
This passive audience is immediately affected by these messages. The public essentially cannot escape from the media's influence, and is therefore considered a "sitting duck" (Croteau, Hoynes 1997).
Both models suggest that the public is vulnerable to the messages shot at them because of the limited communication tools and the studies of the media's effects on the masses at the time (Davis, Baron 1981).
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