Definition (1):
Narcotizing dysfunction is the phenomenon where the media gives such huge amounts of coverage that the audience becomes apathetic and fails to act on the information, irrespective of how compelling the issue is.
Definition (2):
Narcotizing dysfunction refers to a theory that when mass media overwhelms people with information on a certain issue, they become uninterested in it, and cannot act on the information. Here, knowledge is substituted for action. According to this theory, the huge supply of information individuals receive may create only a concern for the namesake with the problems or issues of the society. It would cause the negligence of the actual societal action, covering up mass apathy by superficiality. So, it is called dysfunctional.
It shows the inherent dysfunction of mass media as well as social media during objectionable and controversial events and incidents. This theory suggests that politically uninterested and dormant or static people have no interest in forming a social mass.
Paul F. Lazarsfeld and Robert K. Merton identified this term narcotizing dysfunction in their article "Mass Communication, Popular Taste and Organized Social Action". The overwhelming information of mass media has resulted in becoming passive in the social activism of the people.