Uses and gratifications theory

Uses and Gratifications Theory is an approach to understanding why people actively seek out specific media outlets and content for gratification purposes. The theory discusses how users proactively search for media that will not only meet a given need but enhance knowledge, social interactions and diversion . ^[1]

It assumes that members of the audience are not passive but take an active role in interpreting and integrating media into their own lives. The theory also holds that audiences are responsible for choosing media to meet their needs. The approach suggests that people use the media to fulfill specific gratifications. This theory would then imply that the media compete against other information sources for viewers' gratification. ^[2]

Contents 1 Stages of the Theory 1.1 Stage 1: 1.2 Stage 2 1.3 Stage 3: 2 Uses and Gratifications Model 3 Historical Development 3.1 The Active Audience 4 New Media 4.1 New Media Example of Uses and Gratifications Theory 4.1.1 Being Immersed in Social Networking Environment: Facebook Groups, Uses and Gratification, and Social Outcomes 4.1.2 Gratification Received from Use of Facebook Groups 5 Theory Criticism 5.1 Theorist Explanation 6 Work Cited 7 Additional References

Stages of the Theory

The Uses and Gratifications Theory was developed from a number of prior communication theories and research conducted by fellow theorists.

Stage 1:

• In 1944 Herta Herzog began to look at the earliest forms of uses and gratifications with her work classifying the reasons why people chose specific types of media. For her study, Herzog interviewed soap opera fans and was able to identify three types of gratifications. The three gratifications categories, based on why people listened to soap operas, were emotional, wishful thinking, and learning.^[3]

• In 1970 Abraham Maslow suggested that Uses and Gratifications Theory was an extension of the Needs and Motivation Theory. The basis for his argument was that people actively looked to satisfy their needs based on a hierarchy. The pyramid hierarchy began on the bottom with Biological/Physical, Security/Safety, Social/Belonging, Ego/Self-Respect and Self-actualization at the top.^[4]

• In 1954 Wilbur Schramm developed the fraction of selection, a formula for determining which form of mass media an individual would select. The formula helped to decide the amount of gratification an individual would expect to gain from the medium over how much effort they had to make to achieve gratification.^[5]

Stage 2

• In 1969 Jay Blumler and Denis McQuail began to study why people watched political program on television. The motive they were able to identify helped lay the groundwork for their research in 1972 and eventually the Uses and Gratifications Theory.^[6]

• In 1972 Denis McQuail, Jay Blumler and Joseph Brown suggested that the uses of different types of media could be grouped into 4 categories. The four categories were: diversion, personal relationships, personal identity and surveillance.^[7]

• In 1973-74 McQuail, Blumler and Brown were joined by Elihu Katz, Michael Gurevitch and Hadassah Haas, in their media exploration. The collaborative research began to indicate how people saw the mass media.^[8]

Stage 3:

• The most recent interest surrounding Uses and Gratifications Theory is the link between the reason why media is used and the achieved gratification.^[9]

Uses and Gratifications Model

According to Katz, Blumler and Gurevitch's research there were 5 components comprising the Uses and Gratifications Model. There components are:

• “The audience is conceived as active.” ^[10]

• “In the mass communication process much initiative in linking gratification and media choice lies with the audience member.” ^[11]

• “The media compete with other sources of satisfaction.” ^[12]

• “Methodologically speaking, many of the goals of mass media use can be derived from data supplied by individual audience members themselves.” ^[13]

• “Value judgments about the cultural significance of mass communication should be suspended while audience orientations are explored on their own terms.” ^[14]

Historical Development

Beginning in the 1940’s, researchers began seeing patterns under the perspective of the uses and gratifications theory in radio listeners.^[15] Early research was concerned with topics such as children's use of comics and the absence of newspapers during a newspaper strike. An interest in more psychological interpretations emerged during this time period.

In 1948, Lasswell introduced a four-functional interpretation of the media on a macro-sociological level. Media served the functions of surveillance, correlation, entertainment and cultural transmission for both society and individuals ^[16]

In 1974, Katz, Blumler and Gurevitch realized that many Uses and Gratification studies, to that point in time, were mostly focused on seven areas. The areas were: ^[17]

1. The social and psychological origins of

2. needs which generate

3. expectations

4. of mass media or other sources, which lead to

5. differential patterns of media exposure (or engagement in other activities), resulting in

6. need gratifications and

7. other consequences, perhaps mostly unintended ones

Therefore, Katz, Blumler and Gurevitch developed the Uses and Gratifications model to better study how and why people were using media for personal satisfaction.

The Active Audience

Jay Blumler presented a number of interesting points, as to why Uses and Gratifications cannot measure an active audience. He stated, "The issue to be considered here is whether what has been thought about Uses and Gratifications Theory has been an article of faith and if it could now be converted into an empirical question such as: How to measure an active audience?" (Blumler, 1979). Blumler then offered suggestions about the kinds of activity the audiences were engaging with in the different types of media.

• Utility : “Using the media to accomplish specific tasks” ^[18]

• Intentionality: “Occurs when people’s prior motive determine use of media”^[19]

• Selectivity: “Audience members’ use of media reflect their existing interests” ^[20]

• Imperviousness to Influence: “Refers to audience members’ constructing their own meaning from media content” ^[21]

25 years later, in 1972, Blumler, McQuail and Brown extended Lasswell's four groups. These included four primary factors for which one may use the media:^[22]

• Diversion: Escape from routine and problems; an emotional release ^[23]

• Personal Relationships: Social utility of information in conversation; substitution of media for companionship^[24]

• Personal Identity or Individual Psychology: Value reinforcement or reassurance; self-understanding, reality exploration^[25]

• Surveillance: Information about factors which might affect one or will help one do or accomplish something ^[26]

Katz, Gurevitch and Haas (1973) saw mass media as a means by which individuals connect or disconnect themselves with others. They developed 35 needs taken from the largely speculative literature on the social and psychological functions of the mass media and put them into five categories:

• Cognitive Needs: Acquiring information, knowledge and understanding^[27]

• • Media Examples: Television (news), video (how-to), movies (documentaries or based on history)

• Affective Needs: Emotion, pleasure, feelings^[28]

• • Media Examples: Movies, television (soap operas, sitcoms)

• Personal Integrative Needs: Credibility, stability, status^[29]

• • Media Examples: Video

• Social Integrative Needs: Family and friends^[30]

• • Media Examples: Internet (e-mail, instant messaging, chat rooms, social media)

• Tension Release Needs: Escape and diversion ^[31]

• • Media Examples: Television, movies, video, radio, internet

New Media

The application of New Media to the Uses and Gratifications Theory has been positive. ^[32] The introduction of the Internet, social media and technological advances has provided another outlet for people to use and seek gratification through those sources. Based on the models developed by Katz, Blumler, Gurevitch and Lasswell, individuals can choose to seek out media in one outlet, all falling within the proscribed categories of need. The only difference now, is that the audience does not have to go to multiple media outlets to fulfill each of their needs. The Internet has created a digital library, allowing individuals to have access to all content from various mass medium outlets.

New Media Example of Uses and Gratifications Theory

Being Immersed in Social Networking Environment: Facebook Groups, Uses and Gratification, and Social Outcomes

^[33]

In 2007 a study was conducted to examine the Facebook groups users gratifications in relation to their civic participation offline. The Web survey polled 1,715 college students, ranging in age from 18-29, who were members of Facebook groups. The respondents were given 16 statement through an electronic survey and asked “to rate their level of agreement with specific reasons for using Facebook groups, including information acquisition about campus/community, entertainment/recreation, social interaction with friends and family, and peer pressure/self satisfaction.” The Likert scale indicated the 1 was strongly agree and 6 was strongly disagree. To ensure those results were not skewed, the respondents were also asked to complete a set of level of agreement questions to properly gauge their level of life satisfaction.

The study ultimately yielded results through principal components factor analysis with varimax rotation. The results showed that there were four needs for using Facebook groups, “socializing, entertainment, self-status seeking, and information.”

Gratification Received from Use of Facebook Groups

• Socializing: Students interested in talking and meeting with others to achieve a sense of community and peer support on the particular topic of the group

• Entertainment: Students engaged with the groups to amuse themselves

• Self-Seeking: Students maintain and seek out their personal status, as well as those of their friends, through the online group participation

• Information: Students used the group to receive information about related events going on and off campus

Theory Criticism

The data behind the theory is hard to extrapolate and at times is not found. How each audience, individual and group perceives a given media outlet is extremely difficult to gauge. A main argument lies in how the media, producers and editors want the material to be interpreted. News reports on a rising restaurant could be seen as a threat to local establishments but was intended as a positive note to how well the community is doing. Morley (1992) says that "creators of media content have a preferred reading that they would like the audience to take out of the text. However, the audience might reject it, or negotiate some comprise interpretation between what they think and what they text is saying, or contest what the text says with some alternative interpretation" ^[34]. The biggest issue for the Uses and Gratifications Theory is its being non-theoretical, vague in key concepts, and nothing more than a data-collecting strategy. ^[35]

Using this sociologically-based theory has little to no link to the benefit of psychology due to its weakness in operational definitions and weak analytical mode. It also is focused too narrowly on the individual and neglects the social structure and place of the media in that structure. ^[36]

Due to the individualistic nature of Uses and Gratification theory, it is difficult to take the information that is collected in studies. Most research relies on pure recollection of memory rather than data. ^[37] This makes self-reports complicated and immeasurable.

The Uses and Gratifications theory has been denounced by media hegemony advocates who say it goes too far in claiming that people are free to choose the media and the interpretations they desire. ^[38] Audiences interpret the media in their own terms and any debate for or against this can be argued, and depending on the circumstances, won by either side. Each individuals’ actions and effects on those actions will depend solely on the situation. The Uses and Gratifications theory does not properly account for these natural occurrences but does hold a valid argument that each individual has unique uses to which the media attempts to meet their gratifications.

Theorist Explanation

"The nature of the theory underlying Uses and Gratifications research is not totally clear," (Blumler, 1979) This makes the line between gratification and satisfaction blurred, calling into question whether or not we only seek what we desire or actually enjoy it. (Palmgreen,P., and Rayburn,J.D., 1985)

"Practitioners of Uses and Gratifications research have been criticized for a formidable array of shortcomings in their outlook -- they are taxed for being crassly atheoretical, perversely eclectic, ensnared in the pitfalls of functionalism and for flirting with the positions at odds with their functionalist origins," (Blumler, 1979).

Work Cited

Additional References

Blumler and Katz. The Uses of Mass Communication: Current Perspectives on Gratification Research.

Davenport, Lucinda. LaRose, Robert. Straubhaar, Josheph, Media Now - Understanding Media, Culture, and Technology, Sixth Edition, Boston, Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2010, ISBN-13: 978-0-495-57008-0.

DeFleur, M. L., and Ball-Rokeachi, S. J. (1989). Theories of Mass Communication.

Grant, A. E., (1998, April). Dependency and control. Paper presented to the Annual Convention of the Association of Educators in Journalism and Mass Communications, Baltimore, Maryland.

Infante, Dominic A., Rancer, Andrew S., and Womack, Deanna F., eds. Building Communication Theory (1993). (pp. 204–412).

Katz, E. (1987). Communication research since Lazarsfeld. Public Opinion Quarterly, 51, 525–545

Katz, E. (1959). Mass communication research and the study of culture. Studies in Public Communication, 2, 1-6.

Katz, E., Blumler, J. G., & Gurevitch, M. (1974). Ulilization of mass communication by the individual. In J. G. Blumler, & E. Katz (Eds.), The uses of mass communications: Current perspectives on gratifications research (pp. 19–32). Beverly Hills: Sage.

Katz, E., Haas, H., & Gurevitch, M. (1973). On the use of the mass media for important things. American Sociological Review, 38(2), 164-181.

Laughey, Dan. Key Themes in Media Theory. "Behaviourism and Media Effects." (p 26-27).

Lazarsfeld, P.F. (1940). "Radio and the Printed Page." New York: Dvell, Sloan, Pearce.

Littlejohn, Stephen W. (2002) Theories of Human Communication (pp 323)

McQuail, D., Blumler, J. G., & Brown, J. (1972). The television audience: A revised perspective. In D. McQuail (Ed.), Sociology of Mass Communication (pp. 135–65). Middlesex, England: Penguin.

McQuail, D. (1983). With Benefits to Hindsight : Reflections on Uses and Gratifications Research. Critical Studies in Mass Communication Theory: And Introduction. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

McQuail, D. (1994). Mass Communication: An Introduction (3rd ed.,). London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: Sage Publications.

Palmgreen, P., and Rayburn, J. D., (1985). “A Comparison of Gratification Models of Media Satisfaction.” Communication Monographs (pg 4.)

Roger, Tony, "Why Are Newspapers Dying?", About.com, Retrieved 2011-11-02.

Rubin, A. M., & Windahl, S. (1982). Mass media uses and dependency: A social systems approach to uses and gratifications. Paper presented to the meeting of the International Communication Association, Boston, MA.

Severin, W. J., and Tankard, J. W. (1997). Communication Theories: Origins, Methods, and Uses in the Mass Media (4th ed.). New York: Longman.