Uses and Gratifications Theory: Media Consumption Motives & Effects
Uses & Gratifications
What do people do with media? Uses & gratifications shifts the focus to understanding why people use media. It combines insights from different fields.
The starting point is the assumption that we consume media to satisfy needs. The focus is on analyzing these needs and the direct impact media has.
It assumes the audience is relatively active. The background is essential to understand people’s choice of media. Media impact is limited by individual differences, motivation, societal structure, individual attitudes, initiative, and involvement.
Strengths
- It does not consider media effects as a homogeneous phenomenon.
- It is applicable to different media contexts. Many U&G researches are built on a comparative approach among different media platforms.
- It considers sociology and psychology to deal with factors that can influence media reception.
Weaknesses
- McQuail criticized that the approach was too individualistic, making it difficult to link individual consumption patterns to societal structures.
- Gitlin criticizes that U&G focuses excessively on psychological motives and effects, overlooking long-term social and cultural effects.
- Sometimes U&G studies rely on self-report data, which can distort actual patterns of consumption due to the social desirability response.
Motives
- Greenberg studied the motives behind British children’s TV consumption. Rubin adapted those patterns to American audiences.
- In 1983, Rubin identified nine recurring motives for watching American TV: relaxation, companionship, entertainment, social interaction, information, habit, pass time, arousal, and escape.
Consequences and Effects
- Academics have found that low self-esteem makes you more vulnerable to get distracted by media.
- U&G scholars tend to use the term ‘effects’ carefully, acknowledging that not all individuals react the same way.
- One common consequence in U&G studies is media dependency – heavy reliance on a particular medium – which increases the effects that a particular medium usually has.
Mass Society -> Mass Culture: ‘Apocalyptics’ Vs ‘Integrated’
– Umberto Eco (1964) summarized the clash between partisans and opponents of mass culture with these terms.
Apocalyptics
Marcuse’s One-Dimensional Man
Technology and the ‘cultural industry’ (Adorno & Horkheimer) condition societies ideologically, reducing men to one dimension (Giampaolo), one single discourse.
Mass society creates mass and non-critical culture. Culture no longer works as a critical apparatus.
McDonald’s Masscult and Midcult
He criticizes mass culture (“Masscult”), for it leads to intellectual vulgarity of its consumers.
Integrated
Edward Shils -> Mass culture guarantees progress
The new society is massive because the mass of the population has finally become part of society.
Mass society stresses individual dignity and individual rights (civil rights: women, ethnic groups, etc.)
Mass society is more interested in culture. The quantity of culture consumed in mass society is bigger than in any other epoch.
Three types of culture:
- Superior or refined culture: More serious, coherent, and subtle (poetry, novels, philosophy…)
- Mediocre culture: Less original, more reproductive. Usually same genres as superior culture with less aspirations, or new genres not established yet (musicals).
- Brutal culture: Symbolic elaboration is much more elementary (boxing, horse racing).
The amount of culture consumption has increased, especially at the levels of brutal and mediocre culture, but even superior culture is more consumed. The middle and lower classes, and not only the elites, have access to it. Causes:
- More availability.
- More leisure time.
- Increased literacy.
- Enhanced individuality.
The boundaries between mediocre and superior culture are not so sharp. A considerable amount of mediocre culture is still valuable after long periods.
McLuhan: Masses have enriched culture.
Technical reproduction is a way to achieve an expansion, both qualitative and quantitative, in the cultural field. There is an intrinsic synergy between mass communications media and cultural forms.
Mass media extend our own faculties “for the first time in human history”.
Each major period in history has been marked by the most widely used medium at the time:
- Age of Print (1700-mid 1900s) -> Concept of “commodity” (uniform, repeatable) stems from here.
- The Electronic Age -> Electronic global village. Electronic channels increase speed with which people communicate and interact with each other.
