People accept media in different ways and for different reasons e.g. people might use the internet to research for homework projects, to socialise with their friends over facebook, MSN, bebo etc or just to play some games. Some of people might use the magazines to find out some informations about their favourite celebrities, to read their horoscopes, to have a laughs at funny images and photos of animals/ peoples.
In the 1970's, there was a two media theories: one is called Blumer and other is called Katz- they has produced a theory that categorised how and why people use media texts. However, they argued that audiences interact with the media in order to be satisfied in some ways. We know that all people do use the internet and reads the magazines but they all have different reasons for doing this.
- to gain information (information- we want to find out about society and the world-we want to satisfy our curiosity. This would fit the news and documentaries which both give us a sense that we are learning about the world).
- to be entertained (entertainment- sometimes we simply use the media for enjoyment, relaxation or just to fill time).
- to identify with characters/ situations (personal identify- we may watch the television in order to look for models for our behaviour. So, for example, we may indentify with characters that we see in a soap. The characters help us to decide what feel about ourselves and if we agree with their actions and they succeed we feel better about ourselves- think of the warm feeling you get when you favourite character triumphs at the end of a programme )
- to socially interact with others (social- we use the media in order to find out more about the circumstances of other people. Watching a show helps us to empathise and sympathise with the lives of others so that we may even end up thinking of the characters in programme as friends even though we might feel a bit sad admitting it! At the same time television may help us to get on with out real friends as we are able to talk about the media with them).
- to escape from their troubles
People might recognise them-self in some of these descriptions and not surprisingly uses and gratification theory has become quite popular amongst media critic. It is important to remember with this theory that it is likely that with any media text, people enjoy- they will be getting a number of gratifications from it and not just one.
However, despite this popularity amongst critics, there have also been criticisms made of some features of the theory. First off all, it ignore the fact that people do not always have complete choice as to what we receive from the media e.g. the family have that much choice about the posters that they see on their way to college/work however objectionable they may find some of them. A second problem relates to this example is that the poster they see on a billboard, may be extremely sexist. However, they clearly cannot choose a different poster that they want to see because they might find some pleasant.
If you think about it, this problem also effects us in our other encounters with the media because we generally having to choose the media that we consume from what is available. This undermind the idea of uses and gratification because we may not all have the same potentional to use and enjoy the media products that we want. In society there are in fact plenty of minorities who feel that the media does not provide for them the texts that they want to use.
How i'm going to use this theory and why?
I'm going to use it to find out what people like to read, what information they would like to get, what entertained them, their personal identify and social. However, people will might buy my magazine to find out more informations about their favourite bands (e.g. who is new in their band and why, a new band in the U.K., why the band has breaking up, they lifestyle -like what they usually eat, do and also what they like and dislike and why). Also i need to find out what entertained them (more posters, a week horoscopes or if they will read the magazine for enjoyment, relaxation or just to fill time.) and then i need to be careful which band will be on my cover page of magazine- to meet with their needs and expectations. Also there are a number of reasons why and where people would read my music magazines: they might be read my magazine - to escape from their troubles or stressful lives , find some informations about their favourite bands, also they might read it in buses, cars, airplanes or many of young people wants to be in the bands or are in bands (e.g. they wants this lifestyle, they see this lifestyles- parties, relationships, become famous, wants to be somebody) or people who involved into music industry/ business. And also its the best way how to promotion a new or old bands- by make of clothes e.g. a top with their band on it (so people might will buy this top or t-shirt just because there is their favourite band etc.)
