Uses and Gratifications Theory

As radio, film, and television became mainstream items in 20th-century American life, researchers found new topics to study, particularly the way these new media devices and genres fit into the structure or routines of daily life. This outgrowth of the functional paradigm stressed that nature incorporates new parts into existing systems in ways that adjust to and maintain the equilibrium of the systems through repetitive, patterned actions. In essence, the theory argues that viewers, listeners, and readers select and use various media options and programming to gratify their needs. This view of media theory reasons that audiences are active and attentive when media content serves some function they believe to be valuable.

Soon after radio became a standard fixture in American homes, Paul Lazarsfeld's Office of Radio Research sponsored a series of studies to see what radio meant in listeners' lives. The core studies, conducted by Herta Herzog, involved researching who listened to radio soap operas and for what reasons (satisfactions). The studies identified three main gratifications: (1) emotional release, (2) wishful thinking, and (3) advice regarding listeners' own lives. From these self-revealed satisfactions, the term uses and gratifications was coined.

This extensive, innovative study of a new media technology and its role as a part of society languished somewhat in research circles until 1959. Then sociologist Elihu Katz, Lazarsfeld's colleague in the 1940s Erie County election studies, again suggested that examination of how the new media were incorporated into the routine of life might begin at the end of the media chain. The new focus was on the users of media forms and technologies, rather than beginning with the technologies and forms being introduced into the system and seeking users. In other words, the suggestion was that end users make choices about (uses of) the media and content to satisfy their social and psychological needs (gratifications). He made his observations from 1959 to the 1970s. Katz further explored the uses and gratifications perspective with his [Page 881]colleagues Jay Blumler and Michael Gurevitch. The threesome's collaborative research resulted in one of the first books about the perspective, The Use of Mass Communication: Current Perspectives on Gratifications Research, published in 1974. The authors summarized the book's main premise: “Studies have shown that audience gratifications can be derived from at least three distinct sources: media content, exposure to the media per se, and social context that typifies the situation of exposure to different media” (Katz, Blumler, & Gurevitch, 1974, p. 24).

Katz, Blumler, and Gurevitch's book outlined their original five basic assumptions about the uses and gratifications perspective. First, the audience is an active component of the process rather than a passive recipient. This tenet is based on the idea that individuals have reasons to incorporate media as tools to achieve certain goals. Second, individuals must take the initiative to select and incorporate media into their lives—in other words, exert effort, which demonstrates that individuals are inviting that influence into their lives and therefore are determining what they will and will not allow. Third, media are in competition with other sources of gratification for individuals' attention; therefore, individuals place a high enough value on media to include them while excluding or limiting other sources of gratification, such as face-to-face communication. Fourth, the data showed that individuals “are very aware of their motives and choices and are able to explain them” (Katz et al., 1974, p. 17). This reinforces the idea that people are well aware of their part in creating and maintaining media as part of their system. Fifth, the three theorists believed that to fully understand the effects of media, the motives of the audiences (users) must be explored to discover the values the users place on the media and the content. Only through asking media users can the real value be discovered.

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