'The hypodermic syringe model sees the media audience as passive and easily influenced and manipulated by the mass media.' Assess this,referring to sociological evidence and arguments.

The hypodermic syringe model is a theory of media effect on audience. The term is used to describe interaction between the media and public belief, offering the concept of people becoming affected by the information 'injected' into them through their information medium. (For example, television viewers would have their minds injected with sex and violence after watching too many graphically violent programmes, and this would affect their views and behaviour). The model tends to see …

…the meaning of the media. In conclusion, the hypodermic syringe model cannot be considered to be an accurate reflection of the postmodern societal relationship with the media: it has fatal flaws in its assumptions of the audience as mass and it's disregard for other factors such as social relationships and personal opinion. The other theories researched, although criticisms can be found for them, offer a view of the media audience that is far more realistic.