Audience consumption habits

Uses and Gratifications theory:http://sites.psu.edu/kcc5107comm473/wp-content/uploads/sites/9537/2014/02/ug-sm.jpg

This theory looks into why people use media.This is the theory which explains how people use media for their needs and gratification. This theory explains about what media does to people and not what people do with the media.

Theorists argue that peoples needs in the media influence how they use and respond to a medium:Uses and Gratification can be seen as part of a broader trend amongst media researchers that are more concerned with What people do with the media, which allows for a larger variety of interpretations and responses. However, some people have argued that gratifications could also be seen as effects, for example thrillers are very likely to get similar interpretations and responses amongst most viewers.The 1960sDuring and in the 1960s, the first people with television would become grownups. Here it became apparent to media theorists that people (audiences) made choices on what they did when watching certain media. The audience was made up of individuals who actively consumed texts for different reasons and also in different ways.LaswellIn 1948, Laswell suggested that forms of media had these following functions on individuals and society:Entertainment

Correlation

Surveillance

Cultural transmission

Blumer and katzThese researchers expanded this theory and published their own copy in 1974, stating that individuals might choose to expose themselves to certain media for the following reasons:

Diversion (escaping from everyday life and problems)

Personal relationships (using the media for emotional and other interaction)

Personal identity (finding yourself out and learning behaviour and values from texts)

Surveillance (information that could be useful for living)

Their uses and gratification theory suggests that media users play an active role in choosing and using the media and that users take an active part in the communication process and are goal orientated in their media use. The theorist say that a media user seeks out a media source that best fulfils their needs. Uses and gratification assume that the media users have alternate choices to satisfy their needs.

Since then, the list of uses and gratifications has been extended, particularly as new media forms have been released (For example, video games and the internet).