Hypodermic Syringe Effect

It is said that as a mass audience we can be very easily led or influenced simply from what we have watched. For example, if we see a woman washing up on television we would assume that that is the norm, a woman may then go and wash up with a man expecting her to. There has been evidence of violent people, such as Thomas Hamilton, watching a lot of violent films which has then led to the case that this is the reasoning behind his actions. The theory does take away peoples individuality basing itself solely on what we watch and how we act after we have watched it.
Personally, I do believe the theory to a certain extent. A programme such as Skins being watched by so many teenagers, I think, forces the characteristics of being misunderstood upon them and however much we may dislike unhappiness, when it is portrayed along with the 'cool' lifestyle within the programme I think we happily welcome it if it means that we become similar to characters like Effy, Cassie and Cook.



How the media can influence an audience?

From the video, made by a YouTube user, you can see the amount of doom and gloom present throughout. With the vast amounts of close ups on Effy we form a relationship with her, knowing how she is feeling constantly. Because we put ourselves into the characters lives during the time we watch the program it is easy for us to be influenced by them. In this case the answer to everything is to go out and party, I am sure this has influenced 1000s of teenagers that experience issues who watch this and think it's an easy solution. Seeing someone else in a similar position your in or has characteristics or aspects of a lifestyle you desire makes it possible to push us in different directions when it comes to our actions and views.

However, I do also think that certain individuals can overcome this theory and not be effected by it. There are definitely two types of people in all audiences, those who have very strong independent views and a strong individualism and those who follow the crowd - ''sheep'' as such. The ones who have strong independent views and strong individualism would simply take what they wanted from what they view dependent on this - feminists would defend their views and show disgust at the constant programmes that feature women in domestic roles where as more 'easily led' women who have been brought up not expressing themselves as much would accept it and move on unless told otherwise.