Exploring Media Influence: Comparing Magic Bullet, Two Step Flow, and Social Negotiation Theories.

The media does not control your bain probably i suppose it's possible that the media has controlled brains it's also possible if not more likely that i'm one of the people controlling your brains so it controlled by media or maybe your brain is controlled but you like it that way so whatever water under the bridge control away if we can agree that the media doesn't literally control your brain good but still we can't ignore the fact that the media news entertainment even educational media is able to handily deliver messages whiich impact the way we see the world we learn our personal values from our parents our friends colleagues and authority figures but we also gains tons of insight about ourselves and world from the arts science politics entertainment jounalism much information about this stuff gets to us through the media .

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So the quetstion is an the media is bringing information and insight to us and that information slash insight is having some kind of impact on our throughts and actions how is it that media contains messages which we parse judge and short into good or believable and bad or not believable how does a messge turn into an option or a behavior well one explanation is the magic bullet theory which is in reference to an actual bullet and not the magic bullet blender that you can buy on QVC instant guacamole sometime called the hypodermic needle model as well this media theory dates way back to the 1930s it was popular during world war 2 when propaganda in both germany and the united states was a big part of the media landscape tv announcer working together to produce an even greate abundance of material and spiritual values for all that is the secret of american prosperiy .

At the time it was throught that all audiences would respond basically uniformly to messages contained in media that media messages were like bullets shot into the brins of spectators or in the case of the hypodermic needle model a serum injected into their bloodstream and that they wouldn't be able to resist its effects basically it was throught that media could directly influence public opinion this was also an explanation as to how someone like hitler a literally evil overlord could come to power the relatively nascent technologies of radio and moving pictures could contain impossible to resist messages that would just implant into the minds of its audiences .

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Today this sounds absurd and actually remarkably like a conspiracy theory that the media can inject throughts and meaning into its audiences who are unable to resist them but as media theorists psychologists and other experts tempered their assumptions about thinks like human nature and uniform effective response with research and stuff two other theories came about the first is called two step flow after thinking through the hypodermic needle modle for a while it became clear that it didn't account for the differing effectivenesses of media messages or the varying not having it ness of audience members or the fact that people talk to one another we don't all consume media in our individual media consumption cells and then stand dutifully silent in the break room discussing nothing of what we've watched reads or thought .

So where the magic bullet theory supposed a direct influence of media on its adiences two step flow inserts a middleman between media and audience sits an authority figure an opinion leader is what they're usually called who are seen by other as well informed well connected and just good at what they do they don't need to be famous or even popluar but often they are opinion leaders maybe people on the tv your coworker who seems to know a lot about politics your aunt who works for the IRS or your pal jeanine who's the office manager of a small business they conusme digest and refine the output of mass media and bring it to their own audience who see them as more trustworthy that the media itself making the two steps of two step flow one media message moving from source to opinion leader and two from opinion leader to the masses .

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unlike the magic bullet two step flow admits that there's a social component to one's media diet it isn't simply that the media does a thing and we accept the thing as a thing worth accepting there's also a negotiation between various streams of media their related message and social authority figures related to those media as well as communities which around it all for some people through the agency provided by two step flow doesn't go far enough it still says media kind of influences people who then infulence other people it's the turtles all the way down of media influence two step flow also has a complicated relationship to the internet which amplifies opinion leaders or inflences is i think what we're calling them these days but it also empowers consumers allowing them direct contact with media messages of their chossing which of these three media theories do you think is the most believable .

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