Chapter 15: Uses of the Mass Media I. Beginnings of the Uses of Gratifications Approach A. "What Missing the Newspaper means" (Berleson, 1949): newspapers were used for relaxation, entertainment, fashion information or to be socially acceptable B Riley and Riley (1951): children in groups of peers used adventure stories from the media for group games, individual children used media stories for fantasizing and daydreaming. Riley and Riley concluded that different people use the same messages from the media for different purposes. C. Katz (1959): replaced the question "what do media do to people?" with the question "what do people do with the media?" II. Classifying Individual Needs and Media Uses A. Basic "uses and gratifications" theory assumptions 1) The audience is active, and mass media use is goal directed 2) The link between specific media choices and need gratification is established by audience members drawing their own conclusions. 3) The media compete with other sources of possible need satisfaction B. McQuail, Blumler and Brown (1972) suggested the following individual needs categories: 1) Diversion (emotional release) 2) Personal Relationships (social utility of information conversations; substitute of media for companionship. 3) Personal identity or individual psychology (value reinforcement, self understanding.) 4) Surveillance (information that may help an individual accomplish tasks.) C. Katz, Gurevitch & Hass (1973): the media are used by individuals to meet the following specific needs (to socially connect or disconnect themselves) 1) Categories of needs: Cognitive needs (acquiring information, knowledge and understanding); Affective needs (emotional, pleasurable, or aesthetic experience); Personal integrative needs (strengthening self image); Social integrative needs (strengthening self image); Tension release needs (escape and diversion) 2) Findings from 1,500 Israeli interviews (from 1972) investigating this theory a. Non-media sources were deemed more gratifying for satisfying overall psychological needs. b. The greater the distance from a referent the more important the role of media in satisfying particular types of needs. c. Media function effectively to emphasize certain comparative processes to satisfy needs (e.g., striving for a higher standard of living would be good). The media are also good for satisfying escapist needs. d. The media are highly effective in satisfying needs for individuals who state that matters of state and society are important to them. e. Self esteem needs are associated with different kinds of media, depending on specific functions involved. Knowing oneself was satisfied mostly by books, enjoying oneself by films and TV, etc. III. Criticisms of the Uses and Gratifications Theory A. McLeod & Baker (1981): expansions of the theory should include: 1) closer ties between the patterns of gratifications media users seek, and the meanings given to specific media messages 2) applying a more consistent use of motivation concepts to study media use 3) expanding attention upon the social structure and the media structure (social systems) media users are situated within. B. McQuail (1985): simplify theory. 1) Presently it studies culture (its origin, production, meaning and use), people in audiences (their identity, attributes, and reasons for being there), individual behavior (kind, frequency, causes, consequences, and connections), and society (the working of meedia within it). 2) Recommends emphasis on Culture- with attention concentrated on the making of choices and the meaningful encounter with cultural products because this would be a return to the bridge-building between the social sciences and humanities recommended by Katz in his original call for research on media usage. C. Donohew, Nair & Finn (1984): media use is "automatic" with habitual, low levels of attention D. Kubey & Csikszantmihalyi(1990): media use is not purposeful (the basic tenant of the theory is misleading) IV. Tests of the uses and gratifications theory A. Strong Findings: Bryant and Zillman (1988)- experimental study of whether an individual's mood influences the choice of television program. Results- subjects make intellegent decisions about selective exposure. B. Weaker Findings: Stanford and Riccomini (1984) -experimental investigation of one of the main postulates of the Uses and Gratifications approach (If the gratifications sought by an audience are similar to the gratifications provided by a medium, the audience should show greater liking for that medium and will show more willingness to expose themselves to it again). Results- providing programs that match audience orientations does not help much in predicting audience reactions to the programs. C. Weaker findings: Elliot and Rosenberg (1987) study of newspaper strike in 1985 (similar to Berelson studies). Results- "media gratifications are primarily the result of the social situation and background factors, and may depend more on habit than on internalized need states." IV. New Technology and the Active Audience A. Heeter and Greenberg (1985): With Cable Television viewers can select the specific channels they want to watch, creating a "channel repertoire" Strategies for cable program searching/ developing a repertoire 1) Automatic (going from channel to channel in numerical order) or Controlled (going from a selected channel to another based on a desired goal) 2) Elaborated (involving all or most channels) or Restricted (involving a limited number of channels) 3) Exhaustive (searching all channels before returning to the best choice) or Terminating ( stopping at the first acceptable choice) B. Rubin and Bantz (1989) took a uses and gratifications approach to study another "new technology" by examining VCR use. They found the following motives for VCR use: 1) library storage of movies and shows 2) watching music videos 3) Using exercise tapes 4) renting movies 5) letting children view 6) time-shifting 7) Socializing by viewing with others 8) Critical viewing including TV watching and studying tapes Levy (1980) feels that people who go to the trouble to use VCR's to time-shift programs, are the most active. The results of both projects show that people use VCR's for very specific purposes V. Conclusions A. The Uses and Gratifications approaches reminds us that people use media for many purposes B. As media users become increasingly confronted with choices, this approach should direct our attention to the audience or users of mass media.