The Importa

nce

ofUSES and gra

tificatio

ns

1974

Uses and gratifications

This theory assumes that there is an active audience – meaning an audience that has an interest in something, and goes about ways of finding out about this ‘something’.

The gratification (satisfaction) to an active audience can be found within:

- What is shown on the text. People will choose to watch a programme because of the content. Eg: I might look at a text if it contains an interest of mine such as Politics.

- Whether the audience is regular readers/watchers of the text’s genre to begin with. Eg: people who like gossip magazines

- The social aspect of why. Is it something they view or talk about with friends? Maybe for a younger audience that text would be relevant towards that age group.

Differences in GratificationTexts don’t have to be watched by people that have an interest in that topic or

people who are keen watchers of that genre. Texts can appeal to different people for different reasons.

Some people will look at different texts because they are bored or stressed out. Some people may look to music as something to calm them when hacked off.

Blumler and Katz identified four reasons for using media texts. (RIDS)

1) Relationships – using the media for interactions. Some people may rather watch a soap that they are hooked on than spend time with family.

2) Identity – some people feel as though they relate to people in films, musicians and characters in books. They may mimic the behavior of these constructs to form an identity of their own.

3) Diversion – some may use media texts (especially music or celebrity culture) to escape everyday issues

4) Surveillance – information such as the news.

Using uses and gratification in my workI need to look at why people would read my magazine.

Using Blumler and Katz’s Theory I can say that my music magazine can be used as a text for:

- Surveillance: So people can understand what is going on within the genre of music magazine.

- - Diversion: Getting into a good read is a good way to escape. Especially when in an imaginary world of celebrities and people you can relate to.

- - Identity: By using people who my magazine can relate to. Or even portraying the model in my magazine as someone good looking and fashionable.

- People will get gratification from my music magazine because:- The main readership will have an interest in the genre- Hopefully a social aspect. By aiming it at a young 16-24 audience, it has

potential to be a talking point.

Encoding/Decoding Readings

Stuart Hall came up with this theory.

It looks at 3 readings which people may use to ‘read’ texts.

Dominant Reading: viewer recognizes the preferred or offered meaning by the creator of the text and agrees with it. If a text is trying to portray a reading, people may agree with the reading.

Oppositional Reading: viewer recognizes dominant reading by creator and then rejects it through belief, whether that be cultural belief, political belief or ideological belief.

Negotiated Reading: Reader accepts, rejects or changes elements of the programme because of views held previously.

How will I work with the readings

Firstly I need to make the magazine quite open to avoid offense or dispute.

This allows for all readings to be made available.

I need to make the dominant reading of what I do clear in the first place, so that people understand that before agreeing/disagreeing with it.