GRATICATION THEORY

Gratification Theory

Introduction

Uses and gratifications theory is the counterweight to media effects theory, in that it “confronts[s] the image of the beery, house-slippered, casual viewer of television with the notion of a more 'active' audience — knowing that both images are true” (Weber, 2009). Rather than depicting media receivers as passive constructions of whatever messages they happen to encounter, the theory proposes an audience motivated by psychological needs, to seek particular types of media content or to consume certain media formats in fulfillment of those needs. The two theoretical traditions are so directly complementary that Windahl has proposed combining them into a unified study of “cons effects” (ibid).

Propositions and Development of Uses and Gratifications Theory

Beginning with the premise of the existence of psychological needs, to be gratified, uses and gratifications theory then proposes that audience members selectively expose themselves to the media they expect will fulfill those needs. If the need is greater, the attention an individual devotes to media consumption will grow proportionally. Audience members may become interactively involved with their media choices, including through parasocial identification with media personalities and fictional characters. Uses and gratifications theory in its present form is largely the result of a quantitative turn advocated by Katz (Hamilton & Rubin, 2008). Research at least as far back as 1935 had called attention to the purposes for which various media were consumed. However, although McQuail has praised this early period for the breadth and diversity of its inquiry, Katz criticized these qualitative studies for their open-ended questions, unquantified categories, inability to connect needs to their psychological origins, and failure to define relationships among media gratifications that might lead to a comprehensive theory (ibid). Katz went on to call for more research explicating the connections within a seven-part systematic theory that comprises the social and psychological ...