Uses and Gratifications

theoryTo understand the Uses and

Gratifications theory and to learn to apply it to media texts.

To understand Uses and Gratfications theory and learn to apply it to media texts

• Without the media, powerful speeches by politicians would affect no one, local events would remain local, and performances by great actors would be seen only by the people in the immediate audience.

• The media overcomes distances, and builds a direct relationship with the audience.

• The 'Uses and Gratifications' model represented a change in thinking, as researchers began to describe the effects of the media from the point of view of audiences.

• The model looks at the motives of the people who use the media, asking why we watch the television programmes that we do, why we bother to read newspapers, why we find ourselves so compelled to keep up to date with our favourite soap.

• The underlying idea behind the model is that people are motivated by a desire to fulfil, or gratify certain needs. So rather that asking how the media uses us, the model asks how we use the media.

To understand Uses and Gratfications theory and learn to apply it to media texts

The model is broken into 4 needs:

1. Surveillance2. Personal Identity3. Personal Relationships:– Relationships within the media– Using the media within

relationships4. Diversion

To understand Uses and Gratfications theory and learn to apply it to media texts

Surveillance• The idea that people feel better having the feeling that they

know what is going on in the world around them.

• One of the genres this is often applied to is news.

• This can also be seen in many consumer and crime-appeal programmes such as Watchdog, Rogue Traders and CrimeWatch.

• These appeal directly through the idea that they are imparting information that people need to know. The programmes talk far more directly to the viewer, and even try to get the viewer involved in the programme.

• All about awareness.

• We use the mass media to be more aware of the world, gratifying a desire for knowledge and security.

To understand Uses and Gratfications theory and learn to apply it to media texts

Personal Identity• How being a subject of the media allows us to reaffirm the identity

and positioning of ourselves within society.

• This can most be seen in soaps, which try to act as a microcosm of society as a whole.

• The characters in soaps are usually designed to have wildly different characteristics, so that everyone can find someone to represent themselves, someone to aspire to, and someone to despise.

• Forming personal identity can also be seen outside soaps.

• Sports personalities and pop stars can often become big role models,

• Even the 'seriousness' of news can lend itself to gratifying personal identity, by treating news anchors as personalities (as on Strictly), rather than simply figureheads relaying information.

To understand Uses and Gratfications theory and learn to apply it to media texts

Personal RelationshipsRelationships with the Media

• Many people use the television as a form of companionship. Sad?

• Death in soap/TV

• Events on TV impacting on ‘real life’ (Deirdre).

• Talk/shout at the TV.

• Feeling of intimacy.

• Even though the relationship is completely one-sided, it's easy to see how we can fall in love with TV personalities.

Using Media within relationships

• How we can sometimes use the media as a springboard to form and build upon relationships with real people.

• The EastEnders strapline 'Everyone‘s talking about it', despite being a clever marketing tactic, does hold up when looking at social uses of the media.

• Ice Breaker.

• A stimulus for conversation, talking to each other about the programme or related anecdotes while it is on.

• This is heavily satirised in the BBC sit-com The Royle Family.

To understand Uses and Gratfications theory and learn to apply it to media texts

Diversion

• Escapism - watching the television so we can forget about our own lives and problems for a while and think about something else.

• This can work with positive programmes and with negative programmes.

• The use of the media for entertainment purposes, such as a good spy film, and for relaxation (slumping in front of the telly, don't care what's on).

• The media can give us emotional release and also sexual arousal, which includes a sexy scene in a film as well as pornography.

To understand Uses and Gratfications theory and learn to apply it to media texts

Summary• The Uses and Gratifications model considers how

we use the media in order to achieve different level of gratification (pleasure).

• We use the media in the following ways:– Entertainment– To connect with characters– As an ice-breaker– For sexual gratification– To help establish our identity (and identify those we

would not wish to be linked to)– To escape from reality– To feel superior or more moral.

How can you apply U&G to your collective group