Magic Bullet Theory - LinuxFr.org

Early thought about the mass media surrounded the thinking that when media audience members were isolated from one another, they were vulnerable targets easily influenced by mass media messages. The Magic Bullet Theory, which originated in the 1920's and 1930's, proposed that as an audience, we were all passive and equally susceptible to media messages. The media were thought to have the ability to shape public opinion and persuade the masses toward nearly any point of view desired by the author of that particular text. Early thinking was that messages were like magic bullets; they struck all members of the audience equally and created uniform effects among them in a very different way.

The classic example of the application of the Magic Bullet Theory was illustrated on October 30, 1938 when Orson Welles and the newly formed Mercury Theater group broadcasted their radio edition of H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds." On the eve of Halloween, radio programming was interupted with a "news bulletin" for the first time. What the audience heard was that martians had begun an invasion of Earth in a place called Grover's Mill, New Jersey.

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# Re: Magic Bullet Theory

Posté par Pooly (site web personnel) le 18 octobre 2002 à 08:59. Évalué à 1.

It became known as the "Panic Broadcast" and changed broadcast history, social psychology, civil defense and set a standard for provacative entertainment. Approximately 12 million people in the United States heard the broadcast and about one million of those actually believed that a serious alien invasion was underway. A wave of mass hysteria disrupted households, interrupted religious services, caused traffic jams and clogged communication systems. People fled their city homes to seek shelter in more rural areas, raided grocery stores and began to ration food. The nation was in a state of chaos, and this broadcast was the cause of it.

Media theorists have classified the "War of the Worlds" broadcast as the archetypal example of the Magic Bullet Theory. This is exactly how the theory worked, by injecting the message directly into the "bloodstream" of the public, attempting to create a uniform thinking. The effects of the broadcast suggested that the media could manipulate a passive and gullible public, leading theorists to believe this was one of the primary ways media authors shaped audience perception.

# Re: Magic Bullet Theory

Posté par Pooly (site web personnel) le 18 octobre 2002 à 08:59. Évalué à 1.

It became known as the "Panic Broadcast" and changed broadcast history, social psychology, civil defense and set a standard for provacative entertainment. Approximately 12 million people in the United States heard the broadcast and about one million of those actually believed that a serious alien invasion was underway. A wave of mass hysteria disrupted households, interrupted religious services, caused traffic jams and clogged communication systems. People fled their city homes to seek shelter in more rural areas, raided grocery stores and began to ration food. The nation was in a state of chaos, and this broadcast was the cause of it.

Media theorists have classified the "War of the Worlds" broadcast as the archetypal example of the Magic Bullet Theory. This is exactly how the theory worked, by injecting the message directly into the "bloodstream" of the public, attempting to create a uniform thinking. The effects of the broadcast suggested that the media could manipulate a passive and gullible public, leading theorists to believe this was one of the primary ways media authors shaped audience perception.

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