The Effects Theory, or as it is more commonly known as, The Hypodermic Needle Theory is the media theory that explains that information can be passed on by different things, people, organisations or just different types of media and how people respond to this. Some people will say that the media is 'injecting' different things into our minds to influence us in certain ways. Of course, every person on the planet is different and will interpret news and other opinion in very different ways, for example, a political broadcast from the BNP (the British National Party) would have no real impact upon me, and would not influence me to believe in their ridiculous views (although may spur me to do something against them) but it may appeal to another person who may be impressionable and have a similar view.
The media outlets in different countries will let you see what they want you to see, for example, in North Korea, the dictator Kim Jong-Il only wanted to show the matches at the 2010 world cup in South Africa where their team was shown being victorious (however, he showed the live match of their 7-0 loss to Portugal and was incredibly angry). The media in our country, a few years back, made the then leader of the Liberal Democrats, Menzies Campbell to look like an old fool who was a joke. This influenced the public to not take him and the Liberals seriously, so he eventually resigned for the good of the Liberal cause.
The whole theory of the Hypodermic Needle was formed by The Frankfurt School, a group of theorists who were German Jews who fled Germany before WWII as they could see how Hitler's dictatorship and extreme views where influencing the counrty. In America they could see the developing media could have similar effects upon impressionable people.
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