EXPATIATION ON MAGIC BULLET THEORY EXTINCTION THROUGH THE EVOLUTION OF PERCEPTION STUDIES

Abstract

The mass media have, for sometimes, been seen as communication channels which possess direct, immediate and powerful effects, and the audience who appear helpless and passive responds uniformly to messages they receive from them. This has been the assumption of the magic bullet otherwise called stimulus – Response or hypodermic needle theory. Anchoring on the analytical research design, the author maintains that though the mass media have effects on audience, the effects are not all powerful as the magic bullet theory causes people to believe. He notes that studies in perception and other emerging media effects theories of communication such as selective processes, two-steps/multi-step flow, social categories, cognitive  consistency/dissonance, among others, have proved the bullet theory otherwise, since audience who are very active can decide which message they receive and for what purpose. He concludes and affirms the extinction of the magic bullet theory which has now become an academic material and therefore advocates the final burial of the theory.