Uses and Gratifications Approach

This topic presents some difficulties, in that there is no clear or agreed definition to be offered. In general terms, the uses and gratifications approach refers to a media research orientation, in which priority is given to the perspective of the receiving audience, with [Page 801]particular reference to self-perceived motives or reasons for using (attending to) mass media and the satisfactions (or gratifications) they believe that media (both the process of use and the particular content) provide. Information of this kind is believed to shed light on the dynamics of audience formation, explaining variations in attention and appreciation. It is also a potential predictor of certain kinds and degree of effect, on the assumption that the consequences of media use or content received will depend, ...