Hypodermic Needle Theory

The Hypodermic Needle Theory (HNT) or the Magic Bullet Theory (MBT) implies that mass media has a direct, immediate and powerful effect on its audience. In the 1940s and 50s it was perceived as a powerful influence on behaviour change.

Several factors contributed to this 'strong effects' theory of communication. Some of these are:
- The fast rise  and popularisation of radio and television
- The emergence of the persuasion industries, such as advertising and propaganda
- Hitler's monopolisation of the mass media during WWII to unify the German public behind the Nazi party.

The theory suggests that the mass media could influence a very large group of people directly and uniformly by 'injecting' or 'shooting' them with appropriate messages designed to trigger a desired response. These illustrations suggest a powerful and direct flow of information from the sender to the receiver. They express the view that the media is a dangerous means of communicating an idea because the audience is powerless to resist the impact of the message. The audience is passive and end up thinking what they are told because there is no other source of information.

New assessments that the Magic Bullet Theory was not accurate came out of election studies in "The People's Choice" (Lazarsfeld, Berelson and Gaudet, 1944/1968). The project was conducted during the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940 to determine voting patterns and the relationship between the media and political behavior. The majority of people remained untouched by the propaganda; interpersonal outlets brought more influence than the media. The effects of the campaign were not all-powerful to where they persuaded helpless audiences uniformly and directly, which is the very definition of what the HNT does. As focus group testing, questionnaires, and other methods of marketing effectiveness testing came into widespread use; and as more interactive forms of media (e.g.: internet, radio call-in shows, etc.) became available, the HNT was replaced by a variety of other, more instrumental models, like the two step of flow theory.

I suppose the message I have tried to directly inject into my audience, is about the enjoyment of life. I have tried to communicate to my audience that life is happy and good and should be filled with laughter. However I am not aiming my video at the mass media, but a select group of people. I do not think this theory necessarily applies to my work on a whole, but there is some relevance in that I am trying to spread a message.

Final Digipak

This is the final version of my entire digipak. The top row consists of the three inside panels, and the CD will be placed over the top of the head phones, using them as a round CD template of sorts. The bottom row is my outer panels, the farthest on the left being my front cover, the center my back panel and the farthest left when folded will be placed over the top of the other headphones.I am happy with this result as it is very colorful, all in keeping with my house style and also the images used feature in my music video, making it coherent and the audience is able to establish the link between it and my video.

My Music Video

This is the final draft of my music video. Unfortunately due to time constraints I did not get to edit it to exactly the way I wanted it, however I do feel that the vivid green of the green screen adds much needed colour and also fits well with my digipak's house theme. On the whole I am happy with my final result as I believe it has achieved my desired effect. From observing people's reactions to my final video, I have found that they are exhibiting the exact reactions I had hoped for, they are smiling, laughing, singing and dancing and I have even had comments on what a "happy" video it is. I did originally include some pink and green colour corrections on my video, but the majority of the feedback from this was negative, it was said to be ill fitting with the home movie effect I was trying to incorporate, so although some people liked it, I decided to remove these edits. I have increased the speed of some individual clips to keep it at a relatively fast pace in keeping with the song, and also reversed shots to create a mirroring effect. I continually cut the clips into roughly 3 second segments, to avoid 'boredom', because audience's can lose their concentration more easily when prolonged shots with the same content are played, as they know what is coming and so won't need to pay attention. In conclusion, I think there are some things I could have done better, like a wider range of 'characters' and filmed in some other locations, however I believe that I have achieved what I set out to do - make a music video which spreads a joyful message to my audience.

Top left and right digipak panels

These are going to be the images that feature on the top left and right panels of my digipak. These headphones feature in my video, but I have colour corrected them to pink and green in order to comply with my house style.

Digipak back center panel draft 2 (final draft)

This is the second draft of my digipak. I have cleaned up the smudges, leaving it smooth and white. I have kept to my house theme of green and pink impact label text. I included a bar code as I understand this to be a common convention of sales packaging and a recording studio logo with the relevant copyright notices. I included the website, to almost act as a blurb; it is somewhere my audience can look for extra information. I am happy with this as a final draft, as it corresponds with the front of my digipak.

Digipak back center panel

This is the first draft of my back center panel for my digipak. I really like the image and text, however  I need to do some more editing and erase the smudges on the image and I am going to try and see if I can get the small copyright symbols for my text.

Final two panels of my digipak

These two panels will feature on the inside of my digipak. I have made them in keeping with my pink and green house style, but I did not want them to detract from the other images, so I have kept the text only a shade lighter/darker on the panels, so as not to be too bold.

Preferred Reading of my Music Video

The message I want to be delivered to my audience, is about the enjoyment of life. I want my video to portray the lives of my target audience as fun, happy and filled with laughter. Hopefully my TA and other audiences will watch my video and agree with what they are seeing. I don't see there being any way that my video could be misinterpreted and receive a negotiated or (worst case) an oppositional reading from the audience, as it is filled with positive image. I have put in clips of people smiling and laughing at every opportunity, so hopefully this will evoke an emotional response from my TA and they will find enjoyment from my product.

Magazine Advertisement draft 2 (final draft)

 

This is the second and final draft of my magazine cover. I am happy with the changes I made from the first, even though there are not many. I lined up the text and centered it correctly, and I also added a web adress. I like the simplicity of the piece and the design corresponds with my digipak.

Magazine Advertisement 1st draft

 

After creating a digipak cover, I can now attempt to create a magazine advert. I knew that the front cover of my digipak was going to be the image featured in my advert, I also knew that I wanted to keep it minimalist. This, and taking inspiration from other magazine ads, is why I have only given the necessary information (date, band, single, where it can be purchased). I like my first attempt but may add a web address or venue. Also when I asked for feedback I was told the text was not in line with the logos and did not look right on the page, so in my next draft I will correct this.

Digipak cover draft 4 (final draft)

This is the final draft of my digipak cover. It is still bold and eye catching and features feet, which is what I really wanted. I like that the font (impact label) is a solid block of colour, as it lightens the image. This was edited on Pixlr, by taking the original photo of the legs, cropping the image to get rid of the border and also to keep the legs to one side, and adding an effect called 'Agnes' on Pixlr express. I then moved on to Pixlr editor and erased all of the colour surrounding the legs, leaving the space white and light. After that was done, I went back on Pixlr express and added the font.

Digipak cover draft 3

This is the third draft of my digipak cover. I like this draft much more as it is a solid block of colour. It draws the eye and is very vibrant.

 

 

Digipak cover draft 2

This is the second draft of my digipak cover. I like this one more than the first, as it has a lot more colour and vibrancy from the text. However I think I will change the image again as the black and white is too grungy for the text, and so may highlight the blue in the jeans some more.

 

Junior Senior album cover

This is Junior Senior's album cover.

 

I am going to use this as inspiration for my own digipak cover, in that I want to bring in similar colours. I am thinking that I will use a lot of vibrant pinks, greens and possibly yellows. However my video is not animated like theirs, and so will lose a lot of colour, but I will try to make it brght, by filming outdoors and including colourful mise en scene. I will avoid black in the cover as much as possible, unless it becomes necessary.