Theories of Media Impacts: The Bullet Model

The media can have a very powerful effect on the thoughts and behaviors of others. The bullet model posits powerful, direct effects of the mass media and this became especially apparent when the media started covering the events and happenings of the BP Oil Spill. There were an abundance of photographs, videos, and reporters who exaggerated the effects of the oil spill. Although the spill was a tragedy and was horrible for the Northwest Coast economy, this is in part to how the media depicted the coastal communities that were effected. The media was telling people that the oil had completely covered the beaches of the Gulf Coast and had contaminated fish and seafood for miles, causing people to cancel their vacations and for seafood companies to lose a lot of their business. Media sources showed the most dramatic and disgusting pictures of the oil to try to draw in and keep viewers. Pictures such as these

 were shown on television news shows, in newspapers, and on websites. However, in all reality, only a small portion of beaches were actually affected by the oil and looked like this. But because only pictures like these were shown and not ones such as these

which were taken the same time as the previous photo. The negativity the media was spreading about the effects of the oil spill were causing a drop in Florida tourism and therefore a pretty steep decline for Gulf Coast economy. Things got so bad that President Obama even took a trip to Pensacola to see if the effects of the oil spill were as bad as the media made them out to be. And when he went to a nearby Pensacola beach this picture

was taken, and no oil or tar balls were visible. But, once again, because this was just one picture out of hundreds that were being viewed by people all across the nation through media sources, it was forgotten or even brushed off despite the fact that the President of the United States was in it. The horrid pictures of the tar balls and the oil covered ocean drew more people in than the stories and pictures of the accident that portrayed it as a horrible event, but not one that caused too much damage to coastal communities. This is just one example of how the bullet model can come into play and how the media can be a very powerful thing.