Uses and Gratifications

One current approach to mass communication studies argues that because mass media products are highly available in American society, its audiences tend to “use” it much as they would use any other product or service.

The appearance of this approach marks an important change in the way media researchers think about the audience. Previously, they saw the audience as passive – made up of people who simply accepted whatever was put in front of them. In these models the audience was a captive of the media organizations.

In the uses and gratifications approach the audience is active. Audience members are seen as consumers of a media product, and as with consumers of other goods and services, they shop around, consider alternatives, and make choices.

The earlier approaches assumed that the content of the media must be having some kind of an effect on the audience members, and researchers spent their time trying to locate and measure those effects. However, few substantial effects were ever found, perhaps because the model for the audience was too simplistic.

The uses and gratifications approach seems to provide a richer way of looking at the audience. Instead of asking, “how does the media change our minds?” the uses and gratifications researchers ask “what is the role of media in our lives?”

Here are some examples of the uses to which the media are put:

· Getting the “news”

· Getting information about available products and services

· Starting the day in the morning or ending it at night

· Establishing common topics to talk about with friends

· Creating a substitute for having friends

· Providing a way to feel connected to other members of the audience

· Providing a way to escape from the day’s problems and worries

· Hearing someone else support our own values and opinions.

In this view media becomes just one of many cultural influences in our environment, and far from the most important.