Uses And Gratification Theory

Blumler and Katz 1978

• The uses and gratification model represents a change in thinking. Researchers began to describe the effects of media from the point of view of the audience. It looks at the motives of people who use media. 
• Blumler & Katz (1974) argued that audience needs have social and psychological origins which generate certain expectations about the mass media, leading to differential patterns of media exposure which result in both the gratification of needs and in other (often unintended) consequences. This does assume an active audience making motivated choices.
• People are motivated by a desire to gratify certain needs. 
• The model is broken down in to four different needs
• Surveillance 
• Personal Identity
• Personal Relationships
• Diversion

Surveillance:

Surveillance is the idea that people feel better knowing what is going on in the world around them. Mass media is used to be more aware of the world and gratifying a desire for security and knowledge. The main source of this would be the news and newspapers. 

In relation to music videos surveillance can be in the ideology of the video. The example of this is Lily Allen's video - Hard out here. 

This video and song are talking about current issues that are happening in the music industry. 

Personal Identity:

Personal identity is how the media allows us to reaffirm our identity and positioning ourselves within society. 

In relation to music videos stars can become role models that inspire young children. This causes an outcry when one of them does something wrong or goes against what is normal. 

The first video is about how a pop star can become a role model for young children. The second video caused an outcry because it was very different from what Miley Cyrus used to be like. This caused outrage because people did not want her as a role model for young children to act the way she does.

Personal Relationships:
We can form a relationship with the media, and also use the media to form a relationship with others. Many people use the television as a form of companionship. This may seem sad, but think about how many times you've watched the TV on your own, or with other people but sitting in silence. The television is often quite an intimate experience, and by watching the same people on a regular basis we can often feel very close to them, as if we even know them. When presenters or characters in a soap die, those who have watched that person a lot often grieve for the character, as if they have lost a friend.

Another aspect to the personal relationships model is how we can sometimes use the media to build relationships with real people. Talking to strangers can become easier with common interests (such as TV programme)

Diversion:
The diversion need is what is commonly termed as escapism. This is what we use to escape our own lives and problems for a while to think of something else. 
In relation to music videos, we watch music videos to take our mind of our every day lives, we want to distract our self from the problems we are experiencing. We want to see that people experience the same feelings as we do and want to forget about our own problems and focus on some one else's. 

Criticisms of this theory: 

Len Ang criticised the theory in three aspects. 

The first is "It is highly individualistic, taking into account only the individual psychological gratification derived from individual media use. The social context of the media use tends to be ignored. This overlooks the fact that some media use may have nothing to do with the pursuit of gratification - it may be forced upon us for example"

The second "There is relatively little attention paid to media content, researchers attending to why people use the media, but less to what meanings they actually get out of their media use"

The third "The approach starts from the view that the media are always functional to people and may thus implicitly offer a justification for the way the media are currently organized."