Uses And Gratifications Theory

• During the 1960s, as the first generation to grow up with television became grown ups, it became increasingly apparent to media theorists that audiences made choices about what they did when consuming texts. Far from being a passive mass, audiences were made up of individuals who actively consumed texts for different reasons and in different ways.

• Blumer And Katz - 1974
• They expanded an earlier theory by Lasswell in 1948
• He suggested that media texts had the following functions for the audience:
• Surveillance
• Correlation
• Entertainment
• Cultural transmission
• Theory says that the audience chose their media text to fulfill different needs that they have

• Bulmer And Katz suggested the following reasons to choose a text:
• Diversion - escape from everyday problems and routine
• Personal Relationships - using the media for emotional and other interaction - eg substituting soap operaas for family life
• Personal Identity - finding yourself reflected in texts, learning behaviour and values from texts
• Surveillance - information which could be useful for living - eg weather reports, financial news, holiday bargains

Criticisms

• The use of retrospective 'self-reports' has several limitations. Viewers may not know why they chose to watch what they did, or may not be able to explain fully. The reasons which can be articulated may be the least important. People may simply offers reasons which they have heard others mention. More promising might be the study of people's engagement with media as it happens.