Elihu Katz first introduced the uses and gratification theory when he came up with the idea that individuals make use of media to their advantage…
Developed by Elihu Katz, Jay Blumler, Michael Gurevitch, Joseph Brown and Denis McQuail in the 1970s, the uses and gratifications theory marked a perspective shift in the study of mass communication by turning its attention away from media sources and message and how they affect the audience.
The uses and gratifications theory emerged as a response to earlier theories that considered media users as passive receivers of media messages. Blumler and Katz’s uses and gratifications theory views, instead, that the audience is not a passive but an active player in their media choices, and that these choices depend largely on media users’ apparent needs, wishes or motives. The audiences are thereby formed based on their similarities of wishes, needs and motives.
Elihu Katz first introduced the uses and gratifications perspective when he came up with the idea that individuals make use of media to their advantage. This perspective surfaced when Blumler and Gurevitch persisted in expanding the idea.
Blumler and Katz discussed the five main assumptions of the theory:
· The audience is not a passive player in their media choices. This notion is based on the assumption that the audience has perceived goals when they select a particular media and they aim to achieve those goals through the media they have selected.
· It is the audience who takes the initiative in associating needs gratification and media selection. This means that the audience is very aware of the eventual advantage the chosen media can provide and is not at all prone to be influenced by the media itself. Furthermore, this also implies that the subjective opinion is more prevailing than what the media tries to depict.
· The media is in constant competition with other sources of need gratification. This is based on the assumption that the audience member has several interests or desires that need gratification.
· The countless goals of media use can be drawn from the information provided by the audiences themselves. This is based on the assumption that the audiences are conscious and attentive of the motivations for their media choices and are perfectly capable of expressing them when needed.
· The final assumption of the uses and gratifications theory is that value judgments regarding the cultural importance of media content are deferred while audience actions are being examined. This means that the audiences themselves are the ones who can establish the real value of the media content that they browse, they listen to or that they read. As they make a decision in reading or viewing the content, they place the value on it, according to their individual assessments.
McQuail contended that the various audiences are attentive of media-connected needs and can express them in terms of motivations; personal convenience is more essential in audience formation than cultural or aesthetic factors; and all of the important factors in audience formation can be measured. With these added elements, researchers were able to find attributes of different media that satisfy the needs of media users.
Based on the research made by Mcquail, Blumler and Brown people use media for:
. diversion or escapism
. companionship and development of personal relationships
. value reinforcement and exploring personal identity surveillance or getting information about the world
Katz, Gurevich and Haas gave another list:
.cognitive needs – to attain information, meaning or understanding of the world to increase knowledge and intelligence for growth and self-realization.
.affective needs – to search for emotional or aesthetic experience.
·personal integrative needs – to enforce credibility, confidence and stability.
·social integrative needs - to strengthen contact with family and friends.
However, the uses and gratifications theory has been criticized by some scholars for being non-theoretical, descriptive and vague in defining key concepts and for not providing predictive capacity. It has been criticized furthermore for amplifying the influence of the audience and underrating the power of the media to influence and affect the audiences.
Despite criticisms, the theory continued to be used by researchers all over the world to explore the motivations why audiences choose a particular media for need gratification. For instance, in the digital age and, with regards to the extensive use of social media by audiences, researchers have found out that audiences are active and goal-oriented users of the digital media like social media, websites and applications to satisfy their social and psychological needs. In this Information Age, media consumption is more focused on social interaction, information seeking and sharing and self expression.
Web References:
. Ungvarsky, J. (2020). Uses and Gratifications Theory. EBSCO.
https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/communication-and-mass-media/uses-and-gratifications-theory
Developed by Elihu Katz, Jay Blumler, Michael Gurevitch, Joseph Brown and Denis McQuail in the 1970s, the uses and gratifications theory marked a perspective shift in the study of mass communication by turning its attention away from media sources and message and how they affect the audience.
The uses and gratifications theory emerged as a response to earlier theories that considered media users as passive receivers of media messages. Blumler and Katz’s uses and gratifications theory views, instead, that the audience is not a passive but an active player in their media choices, and that these choices depend largely on media users’ apparent needs, wishes or motives. The audiences are thereby formed based on their similarities of wishes, needs and motives.
Elihu Katz first introduced the uses and gratifications perspective when he came up with the idea that individuals make use of media to their advantage. This perspective surfaced when Blumler and Gurevitch persisted in expanding the idea.
Blumler and Katz discussed the five main assumptions of the theory:
· The audience is not a passive player in their media choices. This notion is based on the assumption that the audience has perceived goals when they select a particular media and they aim to achieve those goals through the media they have selected.
· It is the audience who takes the initiative in associating needs gratification and media selection. This means that the audience is very aware of the eventual advantage the chosen media can provide and is not at all prone to be influenced by the media itself. Furthermore, this also implies that the subjective opinion is more prevailing than what the media tries to depict.
· The media is in constant competition with other sources of need gratification. This is based on the assumption that the audience member has several interests or desires that need gratification.
· The countless goals of media use can be drawn from the information provided by the audiences themselves. This is based on the assumption that the audiences are conscious and attentive of the motivations for their media choices and are perfectly capable of expressing them when needed.
· The final assumption of the uses and gratifications theory is that value judgments regarding the cultural importance of media content are deferred while audience actions are being examined. This means that the audiences themselves are the ones who can establish the real value of the media content that they browse, they listen to or that they read. As they make a decision in reading or viewing the content, they place the value on it, according to their individual assessments.
McQuail contended that the various audiences are attentive of media-connected needs and can express them in terms of motivations; personal convenience is more essential in audience formation than cultural or aesthetic factors; and all of the important factors in audience formation can be measured. With these added elements, researchers were able to find attributes of different media that satisfy the needs of media users.
Based on the research made by Mcquail, Blumler and Brown people use media for:
. diversion or escapism
. companionship and development of personal relationships
. value reinforcement and exploring personal identity surveillance or getting information about the world
Katz, Gurevich and Haas gave another list:
.cognitive needs – to attain information, meaning or understanding of the world to increase knowledge and intelligence for growth and self-realization.
.affective needs – to search for emotional or aesthetic experience.
·personal integrative needs – to enforce credibility, confidence and stability.
·social integrative needs - to strengthen contact with family and friends.
However, the uses and gratifications theory has been criticized by some scholars for being non-theoretical, descriptive and vague in defining key concepts and for not providing predictive capacity. It has been criticized furthermore for amplifying the influence of the audience and underrating the power of the media to influence and affect the audiences.
Despite criticisms, the theory continued to be used by researchers all over the world to explore the motivations why audiences choose a particular media for need gratification. For instance, in the digital age and, with regards to the extensive use of social media by audiences, researchers have found out that audiences are active and goal-oriented users of the digital media like social media, websites and applications to satisfy their social and psychological needs. In this Information Age, media consumption is more focused on social interaction, information seeking and sharing and self expression.
Web References:
. Bhatiasevi, V. (2024, March 4). The uses and gratifications theory of social media and their impact on social relationships and psychological well- being. NIH National Library of Medicine.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10944947/#:~:text=The%20uses%20and%20gratifications%20theory%20(UGT)%2C%20introduced%20by%20Katz,media%20they%20select%20(19).
. McQuail, D. (1984). With the benefit of hindsight: Reflections on uses and gratifications research. Critical Studies in Mass Communication, 1(2), 177–193. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295038409360028
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15295038409360028
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10944947/#:~:text=The%20uses%20and%20gratifications%20theory%20(UGT)%2C%20introduced%20by%20Katz,media%20they%20select%20(19).
. McQuail, D. (1984). With the benefit of hindsight: Reflections on uses and gratifications research. Critical Studies in Mass Communication, 1(2), 177–193. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295038409360028
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15295038409360028
. Montgomery College. (n.d.). Uses and Gratifications Theory. Montgomery College.
https://pressbooks.montgomerycollege.edu/commtheory/chapter/chapter-17-uses-and-gratifications-theory/#:~:text=McQuail%2C%20Blumler%2C%20and%20Brown%20(,including%20emotion%2C%20pleasure%2C%20feelings; . Ungvarsky, J. (2020). Uses and Gratifications Theory. EBSCO.
https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/communication-and-mass-media/uses-and-gratifications-theory
. Whiting, A. & Williams, D. L. (2013, June). Why People Use Social Media. ResearchGate.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237566776_Why_people_use_social_media_A_uses_and_gratifications_approach
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https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237566776_Why_people_use_social_media_A_uses_and_gratifications_approach
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