While other theories see people as passive recipients of media messages, UGT sees people as active consumers of media who are aware of the reasons they choose to consume media.
History of Uses and Gratifications Theory
The origins of UGT can be traced back to the 1940s when communication scholars initially sought to study why specific media and content appealed to different people. The theory was further expanded in the 1970s when researchers started examining not just the gratifications that consumers sought but the gratifications they actually obtained. Today UGT remains one of the most prevalent theories used in media effects research. In fact, communication scholar Ruggiero argued that the rise of new media makes uses and gratifications theory more important than ever as this perspective is especially useful for explaining why people adopt new mediums.
Assumptions of Uses and Gratifications Theory
A cornerstone of UGT is that audiences are active in choosing the media they consume. Moreover, audiences are aware of the reasons they want to consume media and consciously use those reasons to make media selections that will fulfill their needs and desires.
Five Assumptions
Based on these notions, uses and gratifications theory specifies a set of five assumptions about media consumption. The assumptions are:
Explaining Media Use With Uses and Gratification Theory
Much of UGT research focuses on the gratifications that media does or should fulfill. This has resulted in a variety of typologies that classify gratifications into a concise set of categories. For example, in 1973, Katz, Gurevitch, and Haas created a well-known scheme of five social and psychological needs gratified by media use, including: These needs, as well as those specified in many other uses and gratifications typologies, are based on the gratifications consumers obtained from old media, such as books, newspapers, radio, television, and movies. Interestingly, some more recent UGT research has suggested that new media offers similar gratifications. However, work by Sundar and Limperos observes that while old media and new media may fulfill some similar social and psychological needs, affordances of new media also create unique needs that studies of the uses and gratifications of new media may overlook. The scholars suggest several new gratifications that fall into four categories specific to features of new media. These four categories include:
Criticisms of Uses and Gratifications Theory
While UGT continues to be widely used in media research, it has been criticized for several reasons. First, UGT’s’ belief that audiences are active and can articulate their reasons for consuming specific media has led to studies that rely on self-report data. However, self-report data isn’t always reliable and may not always be accurate or insightful. Second, the idea that people freely choose the media they consume is limited by the media available to them. This may be an even more salient criticism today when there are more media choices than ever, but not everyone has access to every choice. Third, by focusing on the audience, UGT overlooks the constraints and boundaries of media messages and how that may impact people. Finally, there has been debate about whether UGT is too broad to be considered a theory.
