Blackwell Reference Online

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The established history of media effects research is characterized by a series of phases marked by fundamental paradigm shifts (see McQuail 1977 , 72–74; 2005 , 457–462; Lowery & DeFleur 1983 , 22–29; Severin & Tankard 2001 , 262–268; Baran & Davis 2006 , 8–17). Each of these phases is associated with particular concepts, researchers, studies, and historical circumstances that influenced ideological development regarding media effects (→  Communication as a Field and Discipline ). The first phase , from World War I to the end of the 1930s, was characterized by the assumption that the effects of the media on the population would be exceedingly strong. The media were credited with an almost limitless omnipotence in their ability to shape opinion and belief, to change life habits, and to mold audience behavior more or less according to the will of their controllers ( McQuail 2005 , 458). The power of media messages over unsuspecting audiences was described in drastic terms: the mass media supposedly fired messages like dangerous bullets, or shot messages into the audience like strong drugs pushed through hypodermic needles. These descriptions gave rise to the “ hypodermic-needle concept ” ( Berlo 1960 , 27), the “magic bullet theory” ( Schramm 1973 , 243), and the “transmission belt theory” ( DeFleur & Ball-Rokeach 1982 , 161). Instinct psychology and the theory ... log in or subscribe to read full text