week3-Topic3 U&G Theory

Uses and gratifications, also known as usage and gratifications or needs and gratifications, is not a single approach but a body of approaches to media analysis that developed out of many varied empirical studies, beginning in the mid 20th century.

The basic theme of uses and gratifications is the idea that people use the media to get specific gratifications.

The basic tenet of uses and gratifications (called UG for short) is that people are not helpless victims of all powerful media, but use media to fulfil their various needs. These needs serve as motivations (gratifications sought) for using media. Gratifications obtained should correspond with gratifications sought for the media to be able to meet the needs of the users.

Jay G. Blumle and Elihu Katz devised their uses and gratifications model to highlight four areas of gratification in media texts for audiences. These include:
1. Personal identity - for example, characters in soap operas experiencing something the audience once did.
2. Personal relationships - a media text provides information for 'water-cooler talk' at work with colleagues, what's happening in the latest reality TV show?
3. Surveillance - lets the audience know what is happening in the world, for example print and broadcast news.
4. Diversion - a media text which provides escapism for the audience, for example a holiday programme.

Text above is the traditional theory. In the article “Determing Uses and Gratifications for the Internet,” we can see that the author mentioned three different aspects of the U&G theory. There are: content gratification, process gratification and social gratification. The last one is mostly about the social network in the Internet.

In my research this quarter, I will use U&G theory to find out why people like to use digital cameras and how the behavior changed after using digital cameras. Moreover, I planned to figure out the different between original users and new adopters. Do the albums online increase the amount of digital camera users? What are the hot albums in this area, and why people like them? With the assisted of other theories, like Innovation Communication, I think I can come out more frameworks about digital camera using.