Uses, Gratifications, and Dependency

Uses, gratifications, and dependency theories arise from a line of work that focuses on the interdependent relationships among the media system, the larger social system, and media audiences. Together, these theories predict that audiences rely on media to gratify specific needs and in the process develop certain dependencies on the media. The more an individual depends on a specific medium to fulfill needs, the more important that media will become to that person. This can, in turn, lead to different patterns of media exposure and use. Ultimately, this can lead to cognitive, affective, and behavior effects of media use.

This process of reliance on media can be examined from either a macro- or a microlevel approach. A microlevel approach looks specifically at the role of media in the lives of an individual, examining how people use and depend on media to meet specific goals or needs. From a microperspective, a person will become more dependent on the specific media that will satisfy a variety of needs over those that satisfy just a few needs. These increased dependencies, in turn, lead to an increased influence of the media in our lives. For example, a technologically savvy and media literate individual knows that he or she can find information from the newspaper, radio, the Internet, television, or a variety of other sources. However, someone who might not be technically savvy might see the only option as turning on the television and the evening news. Therefore, this person becomes heavily dependent on television for news and information gathering. Television, then, becomes more influential on this person than on our technologically savvy person.

A macrolevel approach to dependency involves examining the interdependence between audiences, the media system, and the larger social system. [Page 979]According to the theory, the media system, social institutions, and the audiences exist in a state of mutual interdependence. Each has goals they must accomplish and resources to offer the other. For example, the media system relies on the larger social system for structure and legitimacy and on audiences so they can create advertising revenue. In turn, the media offer information dissemination for the larger social system and entertainment and information for the mass audience. This highlights the power and the effects the media can have on our daily lives. However, these effects occur not because the media are all-powerful, but because the media operate in give-and-take relationship with the larger social system and the media audiences. Given the increasing complexity of the world in the era of the global village, audiences need media to help them make sense and to understand the world around them. The media are only powerful because we use them to gratify a variety of needs. It is the uses people make of media that determine the strength of the media's influence.