After reading and listening about the magic bullet or hypodermic needle theory, I recognize that it may have become more obsolete since modern media has advanced. As information is more readily available online at one’s fingertips, it is much easier to check information. But with that said it can also be easier to trust things you read online based on evidence of culture, but more on that later.
It would be easy for me to say that I am less influenced by media than other people, but that is a poor reflection. Sure, I take everything I see online with a grain of salt, but as I am writing this assignment my fiancé just told me that Ed Asner, the voice of the old man from UP has passed away, and I did not even hesitate to believe it. This is a smaller example than things like the war of worlds broadcast, or even using the movie industry to re-identify a countries culture, but it is still easy to believe things you hear about and read about on Facebook.
Facebook is the easiest target to jab at when talking about this theory. Pew research posted an article about how 4 in 10 Americans trust Facebook as a source of Covid-19 information. If you don’t trust me, here is the link. But this information is useful in identifying the reliance on mainstream media, such as Facebook, for important information. Even though it isn’t the radio in the very early 1900’s, Facebook has a reach larger than radio ever could. Even though information checking is at our fingertips, culture seems to be more trustworthy of what they see.
Let’s take a look at Tik-Tok. It has quickly dominated other social media sites and become among the greats in 2021. Taking a quick scroll through Tik-Tok would show you that most every video on there is made on someone’s cell phone, in their living room, freely speaking to the camera. It gave people an even larger voice than they ever had. In general, a theory I believe is that in 2020–2021 people have learned to trust more in videos someone makes of themselves, talking to their phone, than videos produced with $5,000 cameras. Something about the real-world situations, and transparency that comes with raw unedited short videos has become more appealing than longer produced videos on YouTube. But this theory opens a door on just how much people really believe what they are seeing online without taking the opportunity to verify the information.
Another reality of Tik-Tok is that people scroll for 10 minutes and get thousands of little bits of information. Since it is an app with predominately Gen-z as its user base, their developing minds have a difficult time processing the information at such a fast pace. So any one person or group could easily influence millions of Gen-z children into believing something, without the concern of verification.
People seem to accept things they see online as reality without further examination. Maybe because of laziness or complacency, but it is becoming more real as social media is getting quicker. Two step flow would support this theory as high authoritative leaders are now paying Tik-Tok influencers to push vaccines. For example, the Whitehouse recently paid Tik-Tok influencers to come and make videos in the Whitehouse telling people to get the vaccine. This show the ease of influence that leader or even mass media could have on people without direct communication to the audience.
Brands do this all the time by paying people with large followings to showcase and advertise their product or services. This is a small example of the hypodermic needle theory where large groups can influence people online with ease.
