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Uses and Gratifications
Elihu Katz

MASS COMMUNICATION: MEDIA EFFECTS

Chapter 28
 Media Effects
Cultivation Theory 
Chapter 28
 Media Effects
Cultivation Theory 

Chapter Outline 9th Edition

  1. Introduction.
    1. People make daily choices to consume different types of media.
    2. The theory attempts to make sense of the fact that people consume an array of media messages for all sorts of reasons, and the effect of a given message is unlikely the same for everyone.
    3. The driving mechanism is need-gratification.
    4. Understanding the need helps to explain the reasons and the effects of media usage.
  2. People use media for their own particular purposes.
    1. The study of how media affect people must take account of the fact that people deliberately use media for particular purposes; this is Katz’s fundamental assumption.
    2. Audiences are not passive.
    3. Uses and grats emphasizes that media choices are personal.
    4. Exposure to media messages do not affect everyone in the same way, but fulfill different purposes at different times.
  3. People seek to gratify needs.
    1. The deliberate choices people make in using media are presumably based on the gratifications they seek from those media.
    2. There is not a straight-line effect where a specific effect on behavior can be predicted from media content alone, with no consideration of the consumer.
    3. The key to understanding media depends on which needs a person satisfies when selecting a media message.
  4. Media compete for your attention and time.
    1. Media competes with each other for your time as well as other activities that don’t involve media exposure.
    2. The need that motivates media consumption must be identified in an effort to understand why people make the choices they do.
  5. Media affect different people differently.
    1. Audiences are made up of people who are not identical.
    2. These differences determine the outcome or gratification a consumer receives.
  6. People can accurately report their media use and motivation.
    1. To discover why people consume media, they must be asked.
    2. Scholars have attempted to show that people’s reports of the reasons for their media consumption can be trusted, but this continues to be debated.
  7. A typology of uses and gratifications.
    1. Rubin’s typology of eight motivations can account for why most people watch TV.
      1. Passing time
      2. Companionship
      3. Escape
      4. Enjoyment
      5. Social interaction
      6. Relaxation
      7. Information
      8. Excitement
    2. Each category is relatively simplistic but can be further subdivided.
  8. Parasocial relationships: Using media to have a fantasy friend.
    1. Consumers develop a sense of friendship or emotional attachment with media personalities.
    2. Parasocial relationships can help predict how media will affect different viewers in different ways.
    3. In the same way uses & grats could be used to study TV-viewing, it also holds potential for studying social media. 
  9. Critique: Heavy on description and light on prediction?
    1. Uses and gratification describes the typology of media uses and gratifications, but its lack of explanation and prediction is a serious weakness.
    2. Jiyeon So notes that uses & gratifications theory was never intended to be merely descriptive; it was originally designed to offer specific predictions about media effects.
    3. Scholars question the testability based on whether or not people can accurately report the reasons for their media use.
    4. Uses and grats does not offer much practical utility, whether users are active participants or not.
    5. Instead of staying with the simple assertion that media audiences were uniformly active and making conscious choices, Rubin modified the theory by claiming that activity was actually a variable in the theory.
    6. It’s now clear that uses and grats has generated a large body of quantitative research.
    7. Future studies need to focus on making testable predictions about media effects based on how media are used for this theory to be a stronger theory.

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Archived chapters (PDF)
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are available in
Resources by Type.
See list

New to Theory
Resources?
Find out more in this short
video overview (3:01).


Uses and Gratifications
Elihu Katz

MASS COMMUNICATION: MEDIA EFFECTS

Chapter 28
 Media Effects
Cultivation Theory 
Chapter 28
 Media Effects
Cultivation Theory 

Chapter Outline 9th Edition

  1. Introduction.
    1. People make daily choices to consume different types of media.
    2. The theory attempts to make sense of the fact that people consume an array of media messages for all sorts of reasons, and the effect of a given message is unlikely the same for everyone.
    3. The driving mechanism is need-gratification.
    4. Understanding the need helps to explain the reasons and the effects of media usage.
  2. People use media for their own particular purposes.
    1. The study of how media affect people must take account of the fact that people deliberately use media for particular purposes; this is Katz’s fundamental assumption.
    2. Audiences are not passive.
    3. Uses and grats emphasizes that media choices are personal.
    4. Exposure to media messages do not affect everyone in the same way, but fulfill different purposes at different times.
  3. People seek to gratify needs.
    1. The deliberate choices people make in using media are presumably based on the gratifications they seek from those media.
    2. There is not a straight-line effect where a specific effect on behavior can be predicted from media content alone, with no consideration of the consumer.
    3. The key to understanding media depends on which needs a person satisfies when selecting a media message.
  4. Media compete for your attention and time.
    1. Media competes with each other for your time as well as other activities that don’t involve media exposure.
    2. The need that motivates media consumption must be identified in an effort to understand why people make the choices they do.
  5. Media affect different people differently.
    1. Audiences are made up of people who are not identical.
    2. These differences determine the outcome or gratification a consumer receives.
  6. People can accurately report their media use and motivation.
    1. To discover why people consume media, they must be asked.
    2. Scholars have attempted to show that people’s reports of the reasons for their media consumption can be trusted, but this continues to be debated.
  7. A typology of uses and gratifications.
    1. Rubin’s typology of eight motivations can account for why most people watch TV.
      1. Passing time
      2. Companionship
      3. Escape
      4. Enjoyment
      5. Social interaction
      6. Relaxation
      7. Information
      8. Excitement
    2. Each category is relatively simplistic but can be further subdivided.
  8. Parasocial relationships: Using media to have a fantasy friend.
    1. Consumers develop a sense of friendship or emotional attachment with media personalities.
    2. Parasocial relationships can help predict how media will affect different viewers in different ways.
    3. In the same way uses & grats could be used to study TV-viewing, it also holds potential for studying social media. 
  9. Critique: Heavy on description and light on prediction?
    1. Uses and gratification describes the typology of media uses and gratifications, but its lack of explanation and prediction is a serious weakness.
    2. Jiyeon So notes that uses & gratifications theory was never intended to be merely descriptive; it was originally designed to offer specific predictions about media effects.
    3. Scholars question the testability based on whether or not people can accurately report the reasons for their media use.
    4. Uses and grats does not offer much practical utility, whether users are active participants or not.
    5. Instead of staying with the simple assertion that media audiences were uniformly active and making conscious choices, Rubin modified the theory by claiming that activity was actually a variable in the theory.
    6. It’s now clear that uses and grats has generated a large body of quantitative research.
    7. Future studies need to focus on making testable predictions about media effects based on how media are used for this theory to be a stronger theory.

 
 
 
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