The Hypodermic Needle Theory

The Hypodermic Needle Theory suggests audiences are completely passive to their surroundings, “Uniformly controlled by their biologically based 'instincts' and that they react more or less uniformly to whatever 'stimuli' came along" . Female characters in Vampire Diaries, are seen to be strong, wise and powerful, which are characteristics for young girls to aspire to and creates the ideology that they have the idealistic lives that girls would admire, hence drawing in a larger female audience. In Vampire Diaries, the female protagonists are successful of painting the image of strong love, but it not at the expense of character portrayal. The women of Mystic Falls are independent, physically powerful, well written characters and they’ve developed their personalities throughout the seasons. In The Vampire Diaries, Elena is shown to be a strong character through close up shots which show her powerful facial expressions and serious tone. She is also shown in low angle shots which make her seem domineering and authoritative. Elena’s dialogue and scenes are serious which highlight her character of being successful and strong. By addressing these characteristics, young girls tend to conform to typical stereotypes and make the audiences strive to become like the protagonists, influence them to fulfil their aspirations and copy their looks and attitudes. "People are becoming inspired by the characteristics of the vampire, and see them as a source of fulfilling their potential and inner abilities.” There are negative impacts towards the Copycat Theory, where young girls have gone around biting other young girls to act as Vampires. The JSYK website has written an article called “Love Bites: Vampire Craze Inspires Teen Biting Trend" and have raised the issue where teens are biting each other to show their love and affection. Cohen’s theory of delinquency elaborates on this as it shows younger people have lower prospects and education which leads to frustration and replacing societies’ norms.