Uses & Gratifications theory

This theory focuses on why audience actually use media rather than the actual content of what they are using. It is more concerned with what people do with media, not the content of the media they actually use. For example, a large part of the audience for soaps will watch them as it gives them gratification watching other people stereotypically just like them in high drama storylines. Another god example is that cinema and the film industry has become so popular over the years as it gives the audience the gratification of escapism, allowing them to escape from reality for a few hours and live in the world of the film they are watching.

This theory first appeared most prominently in the 1970s within studies of social sciences. Blulmer and Katz, two famous theorists from the 1970s, stated 4 main reasons as to why audiences will want to consume certain texts. Gratifications can be obtained from a medium's content (e.g. watching a specific programme), from familiarity with a genre within the medium (e.g. watching soap operas), from general exposure to the medium (e.g. watching TV), and from the social context in which it is used (e.g. watching TV with the family). Uses and gratification theorists argue that people's needs influence how they use and respond to a medium. They argue that the audiences needs have roots within psychology and sociology, leading to differential patterns of media exposure which results in audiences finding gratification through media. This does assume an active audience making motivated choices.

 

Source(s): http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/short/usegrat.html