National Press Corps Director: Sam Zeidman - Institute for Domestic ...

R u t g e r s Mo d e l C o n g r e s s 7
viewer’s head. The target of these ‘injections’ usually ends up being a passive audience
because they tend to believe what they are told and not to question the source. 17 Below is
a graphical representation of the process of the Hypodermic Needle Model. 18 As you can
see, the media in this case, directly affects the isolated individual.
Figure 1: Hypodermic Needle Model
Two-Step Flow Model
As time passed, the Hypodermic Needle Theory soon became outdated and was
unable to describe the influence of the media on society. In 1944, The People’s Choice
study was conducted by Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet. The focus
of the study was to examine the decision-making process during the presidential election
of the 1944. 19 After careful analysis, the result was the introduction of a new theory to
describe the media’s influence on the mass audience. The Two-Step Flow Model
suggested that the media moves in two stages to get their message across. The first stage
is that the individuals who pay close attention to the media and its messages will receive
the information and try to understand the focus of the message. The second stage is that
these individuals, known as opinion leaders, will then take this information and pass it on
17 Ibid.
18 Ibid.
19 “Two-Step Flow Theory”,
, Date Accessed: 10 December 2004