CHARLIE MATENGU200508105

COMMUNICATION THEORY AND

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Uses And Gratifications Theory

History and Orientation

Uses and Gratification theory originated in the 1970s,

As a reaction to traditional mass communication research emphasizing the sender and the message. stressing active audience and user instead.

Psychological orientation taking needs motives and gratifications of media users as the main point of departure.

Exponents of the theory

Blumler and Katz believe that there is not merely one way that the populace uses media. 

Instead, they believe there are as many reasons for using the media, as there are media users. 

According to the theory, media consumers have a free will to decide how they will use the media and how it will effect them. 

Blumler and Katz values are clearly seen by the fact that they believe that media consumers can choose the influence media has on them as well as the idea that users choose media alternatives merely as a means to and end. 

Uses and gratification is the optimist’s view of the media.  The theory takes out the possibility that the media can have an

unconscious influence over our lives and how we view the world.  The idea that we simply use the media to satisfy a given need

does not seem to fully recognize the power of the media in today’s society.

Core Assumptions and Statements

Core: Uses and gratifications theory attempts to explain the uses and functions of the media for individuals, groups, and society in general.

There are three objectives in developing uses and gratifications theory:

To explain how individuals use mass communication to gratify their needs. “What do people do with the media”.

Continued

To discover underlying motives for individuals’ media use.

  To identify the positive and the negative

consequences of individual media use. At the core of uses and gratifications theory lays the assumption that audience members actively seek out the mass media to satisfy individual needs.

Statement:

A medium will be used more when the existing motives to use the medium leads to more satisfaction

Conceptual Model

Favorite Methods

Qualitative and quantitative questionnaires and observations among individual users of media.

Demographics, usage patterns, rating scales of needs, motivation and gratification

Example

Leung, L. & Wei, R. (2000). More than just talk on the move: Uses and Gratifications of the Cellular Phone, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 77(2), 308-320.

Mobility, immediacy and instrumentality are found to be the strongest instrumental motives in predicting the use of cellular phones, followed by intrinsic factors such as affection/sociability. This is based on survey research in Hong Kong 1999.

References

Boer, C. de & S. Brennecke (1999/2003). Uses and Gratifications benadering. In: Boer, C. de & S. Brennecke, Media en publiek, Theorieën over media-impact (97-115). Amsterdam: Boom.

McQuail, D. (2001). With More Handsight: Conceptual Problems and Some Ways Forward for Media Use Research. Communications, 26(4), 337-350.

See also Mass Media, Communication and Information Technology

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