The effects model or Hypodermic syringe model

The effects model or Hypodermic syringe model

The "hypodermic needle theory" implied mass media had a direct, immediate and powerful effect on its audiences. The mass media in the 1940s and 1950s were perceived as a powerful influence on behavior change.

Several factors contributed to this "strong effects" theory of communication, including:

 the fast rise and popularization of radio and television

- the emergence of the persuasion industries, such as advertising and propaganda

- the Payne Fund studies of the 1930s, which focused on the impact of motion pictures on children, and

- Hitler's monopolization of the mass media during WWII to unify the German public behind the Nazi party

Therefore, the media works like a drug and the audience is drugged, addicted, doped or duped. This was supprted in adverts such as compare the market, gocompare, shake n vac and more.

These adverts have very memorable theme songs or character which drew a lot of the audience for the product?











The frankfurt school theorised in the 1920s and 30s that the mass media acted to restrict and control audience to the benefit of corporate capitalism and governments.

The Bobo Doll Experiment
This is a very controversial piece of research that apparently proved that children copy violent behaviour. The Bobo Doll Experiment was the collective name of the experiments conducted by Albert Bandura in 1961 and 1963 studying children's behavior after watching an adult model act aggressively towards a Bobo doll. There are different variations of the experiment. The most notable experiment measured the children's behaviour after seeing the model get rewarded, punished or experience no consequence for beating up the bobo doll.

The participants in this experiment (Bandura, Ross & Ross 1961) were 36 boys and 36 girls from the Stanford University nursery school. All children were between the ages of 37 months and 69 months. The children were organized into 4 groups and a control group. 24 children were exposed to an aggressive model and 24 children were exposed to a non-aggressive model. The two groups were then divided into males and females which ensured that half of the children were exposed to models of their own sex and the other half were exposed to models of the opposite sex. The remaining 24 children were part of a control group.

For the experiment, each child was exposed to the scenario individually, so as not to be influenced or distracted by classmates. The first part of the experiment involved bringing a child and the adult model into a playroom. In the playroom, the child was seated in one corner filled with highly appealing activities such as stickers and stamps. The adult model was seated in another corner containing a toy set, a mallet, and an inflatable Bobo doll. Before leaving the room, the experimenter explained to the child that the toys in the adult corner were only for the adult to play with.

During the aggressive model scenario, the adult would begin by playing with the toys for approximately one minute. After this time the adult would start to show aggression towards the Bobo doll. Examples of this included hitting/punching the Bobo doll and using the toy mallet to hit the Bobo doll in the face. The aggressive model would also verbally assault the Bobo doll yelling "Sock him," "Hit him down," "Kick him," "Throw him in the air," or "Pow". After a period of about 10 minutes, the experimenter came back into the room, dismissed the adult model, and took the child into another playroom. The non-aggressive adult model simply played with the other toys for the entire 10 minute-period. In this situation, the Bobo doll was completely ignored by the model, then the child was taken out of the room.

The next stage of the experiment, took place with the child and experimenter in another room filled with interesting toys such as trucks, dolls, and a spinning top. The child was invited to play with them. After about 2 minutes the experimenter decides that the child is no longer allowed to play with the toys, explaining that she is reserving those toys for the other children. This was done to build up frustration in the child. The experimenter said that the child could instead play with the toys in the experimental room (this included both aggressive and non-aggressive toys). In the experimental room the child was allowed to play for the duration of 20 minutes while the experimenter evaluated the child's play.

The first measure recorded was based on physical aggression such as punching, kicking, sitting on the Bobo doll, hitting it with a mallet, and tossing it around the room. Verbal aggression was the second measure recorded. The judges counted each time the children imitated the aggressive adult model and recorded their results. The third measure was the number of times the mallet was used to display other forms of aggression than hitting the doll. The final measure included modes of aggression shown by the child that were not direct imitation of the role-model's behavior (Bandura, Ross & Ross 1961).

The effects model backed up by the Bobo doll experiment is still the dominant theory used by politicians, some parts of the media and some religious organisations in attributing violence to the consumption of media text.

However, this theory has been proven invalid through numerous cases. for example the film Child's play 3 was thought to be the cause of the murder of James Bulger in 1993 and more, subsequently iy was found that no case could be proven to demonstrate a link between the text and violent acts.


How will you music video influence your audience considering the effects model?
According to the effects model, my music video would influence my audience ultimately in a positive way as it gives across the message that life does get better.