Uses & Gratifications

Theory

The Uses & Gratifications theory is based on the assumption

that media viewers/audience actively seek out the mass
media to satisfy individual needs.
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”.
 to discover underlying motives for individuals’
media use.
 to identify the positive and the negative
consequences of individual media use.
Origin and Development
• In 1944 Herta Herzog
• In 1970 Abraham Maslow
• In 1954 Wilbur Schramm
• In 1969 Jay Blumler and Denis McQuail
• In 1973-74 Elihu Katz, Michael
Gurevitch and Hadassah Haas
Katz, Gurevitch and Haas (1973) developed 35 needs taken
from the social and psychological functions of the mass
media and put them into five categories:
• Cognitive needs, including acquiring information,
knowledge and understanding.
• Affective needs, including emotion, pleasure, feelings;
• Personal integrative needs, including credibility,
stability, status.
• Social integrative needs, including interacting with
family and friends.
• Tension release needs, including escape and diversion.
McQuail’s (1983) classification of the following
common reasons for media use:

Information
• finding out about relevant events and conditions
in immediate surroundings, society and the
world
• seeking advice on practical matters or opinion
and decision choices
• satisfying curiosity and general interest
• learning; self-education
• gaining a sense of security through knowledge
Personal Identity
• finding reinforcement for personal values
• finding models of behavior
• identifying with valued others (in the media)
• gaining insight into oneself
Integration and Social Interaction
• gaining insight into the circumstances of others;
social empathy
• identifying with others and gaining a sense of
belonging
• finding a basis for conversation and social
interaction
• having a substitute for real-life companionship
• helping to carry out social roles
• enabling one to connect with family, friends and
society
Entertainment
• escaping, or being diverted, from problems
• relaxing
• getting intrinsic cultural or aesthetic enjoyment
• filling time
• emotional release
• sexual arousal
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. This theory
would then imply that the media compete against
other information sources for viewers'
gratification.
It is suggested that the uses and gratifications theory has to
fulfil one the following when we choose a form of media:

• Identify- being able to recognise the product or person in

front of you, role models that reflect similar values to yours,
aspiration to be someone else.

• Educate - being able to acquire information, knowledge and

understanding

• Entertain – What you are consuming should give you

enjoyment and also some form of ‘escapism’ enabling us to
forget our worries temporarily.

• Social Interaction – the ability for media products to produce

a topic of conversation between other people, sparks debates
(etc who is left on the x-factor)
Criticism of Uses and gratification
theory
• The uses and gratification theory does not
consider the power of media

• More audience-centered

• Positive point of the uses and gratification

theory is it focuses attention on individuals in
the mass communication process.
• Many people have criticized this theory as they believe the
public has no control over the media and what it produces. It
can also be said to be too kind to the media, as they are being
'let off the hook' and do not need to take responsibility for
what they produce.
• 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. (I.e daytime TV is aimed for
housewives)
• ‘Media consumers have a free will to decide how they will use
the media and how it will effect them.’ This may be argued as
media can be manipulative such as the news in its use of
hegemony.
• However this theory may be more relevant in modern society
as the internet and satellite TV such as Tata Sky enables us to
have much more freedom and control over what we consume
in relation to the pre- internet and analogue TV.
 Thank You
Anurag Kawatra
BA (F& TP) - 2015-18
SOURCE
• http://communicationtheory.org
• https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Communication
_Theory/Uses_and_Gratifications
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uses_and_gratifi
cations_theory#Uses_and_gratifications_appro
ach
• https://www.utwente.nl/cw/theorieenoverzicht/
Theory%20Clusters/Mass%20Media/Uses_and
_Gratifications_Approach/