USES AND GRATIFICATION BLUMLER AND KATZ By Emily

• Uses and gratification theory is an audience-centered approach that focuses on what people do with media, as opposed to what media does to people. • The audience are responsible for choosing media to fit their needs. • It is a popular approach to mass communication • This approach focuses on why people use particular media rather than on content. • Uses and gratification theory is used to understand why people seek out the media that they do and what they use it for. • It identifies for example if a girl watched a You. Tube video on makeup that she wants to benefit from that type of media. • Blumler laid the primary groundwork in 1969 with their research into audience motivations for watching political programs during the time of the elections in the United Kingdom in 1964. He saw that the audience was motivated to watch these shows which led to their further research in 1972. Katz Joined later on to develop theory into the Uses and Gratification Approach, when he came up with the notion that people use the media to their benefit. • It assumes that audience members are not passive consumers of media but take an active role in media interpreting and uses it in daily life. • Magazines are not only used as something to read but as something to use and integrate into their life.

Reason Description Entertainment and diversion Audiences consume media texts to escape from their everyday lives. They choose entertaining texts that allow them to divert their attention from the real world, perhaps by watching a fantasy film like Harry Potter or reading a fashion magazine like Vogue. Information and education Some media texts are consumed by audiences when they want to be informed and educated. Newspapers, news programmes and current affairs documentaries educate and inform. They help the audience to find out what is happening in the world. Social interaction Some media texts like The X Factor or I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Hereprovoke interaction with the audience. Social media can now spark an immediate reaction and get people talking while the action is still happening. Personal identity Some audiences like to watch or read media texts because they can compare their life experiences with those represented in it. Audience pleasure comes from empathizing and identifying with characters or content represented in them. Soap operas or lifestyle magazines can offer audiences this kind of enjoyment.