Uses and Gratification theory

Uses and gratification Theory

Uses and gratification theory states what people do with media rather than what media does to people. In other words what needs do people use media for. There are several types of needs which people use media for;

• Cognitive needs
• Affective needs
• Personal Integrative needs
• Social Integrative needs
• Tension free needs

Cognitive needs

People use media for acquiring knowledge, information etc., Among the audience some of them have intellectual needs to acquire knowledge this is not common to all only certain people have their need, each person have a different need for e.g. quiz programs on TV, in order to acquire knowledge and information you will watch news to satisfy the need, search engines in the internet, they make use of these to gain more knowledge. Particularly for the internet search engine they can browse for any topic under the run with no time restriction.

Affective needs

Affective needs include all kinds of emotions, pleasure and other moods of people. People use media like television to satisfy their emotional needs.
Personal Integrative needs
This is when people use TV to make themselves feel better/ gain self-esteem. This makes people want to change themselves and give them motivation to change. Adverts are one way in which people fulfill these needs.
Social Integrative Needs
This is the need people have to communicate with family and friends people use the media in this way by using social networking sites such as Facebook etc. Another way is watching a TV program because your friends watch it so you have something to talk about.
Tension free needs
This is when people use the media to relax although some may watch a film while others may listen to the radio because the way in which people fulfill this need is individual to them because people are not all the same.
 Information from http://communicationtheory.org/uses-and-gratification-theory/