Uses and Gratification Theory: Blumler & Katz

Uses and gratification theory explains how we understand mass communication. This theory focuses more on the audience and how they consume it rather than the message supplied by what they are viewing. It asks "what do people do with the media?" rather than "what does the media do to you?". It rejects the idea that audiences are passive to what they consume in the media (as stated in Hypodermic Needle Theory) but instead they actively interpret and integrate media into their own lives. It also states that audience members choose to consume media to meet their own needs and suggests that the media is used to fulfil specific gratifications. The theory implies that the media competes against other information sources for viewer's gratification.

The theory states that user's have four basic needs when consuming films:

• Identify- being able to recognise the product or person in front of you, role models that reflect similar values to yours, aspiration to be someone else
• Educate - being able to acquire information, knowledge and understanding
• Entertain – What you are consuming should give you enjoyment and also some form of ‘escapism’ enabling us to forget our worries temporarily
• Social Interaction – the ability for media products to produce a topic of conversation between other people, sparks debates (etc who is left on the x-factor)