Hypodermic needle theory

In our second lesson of critical approaches we studied the theory of The Hypodermic needle all so known as The Syringe Theory.

The hypodermic theory is the idea that a the media has a huge amount of power over their audience, they could inject the characters feelings into you through films or games and make you feel the same as them or do the same actions which they do. This theory is very much alive still today, a classic example would be the media saying how video games influence violence.

My opinion of this is that yes the media do have a huge influence over people however we know whats right and wrong. The people who are involved with crimes normally have a mental illness that drives them to the state of committing something. No one really plays Grand Theft Auto and then does what they played in the game in real life?

I watched a couple of interviews with Quentin Tarantino on his film Django Unchained and what he thinks about this whole theory. In his interview he mentions many things on how he "PJ'ed" the violence of slavery and then went on to say that in Django Unchained there are two types of violence; true brutality and a toned down version. His ultimate goal for this film was to take the 21st century audience and take them back to old time Mississippi. However even though most of the violence was toned down Tarantino admits watching the audiences reaction and realising that they still though it was horrific even though he thought the original cuts were a lot worse. In many ways the cruelty left in was in the original motive for the audience to really to within the atmosphere of the film and feel the pain with the characters.

One of the questions that really stood out to me was "What gave you the courage to do this?" Tarantino answer that the passion he has to tell the truth and nothing but the truth of these characters drove him. He says that he "doesn't clean up" films, he tries to keep everything as true as possible.

Another important question was what he thought of the film criticism that he had received, all he said was that it was his job to ignore it and get on with making his film. I thought that this really gave a backbone to why the hypodermic needle is still around, people wouldn't be so concerned on the violence otherwise.

I'm still to decide wether it is so prominent in society or not. I read on Wikipedia that  "The most famous incident often cited as an example for the hypodermic needle model was the 1938 broadcast of The War of the Worlds and the subsequent reaction of widespread panic among its American mass audience. However, this incident actually sparked the research movement, led by Paul Lazarsfeld and Herta Herzog, that would disprove the magic bullet or hypodermic needle theory, as Hadley Cantril managed to show that reactions to the broadcast were, in fact, diverse, and were largely determined by situational and attitudinal attributes of the listeners."  This is an older version of the hypodermic needle theory however it still suggests that the media can have a massive effect on certain targeted audiences.  

 A few really good videos on YouTube swung me towards the idea that it is more than it is not

- The Media's manipulative influence on your morals-  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZkC_fNxmQk

- America's Obsession: A Documentary http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-Do8S0lSqg