The ‘Uses and gratifications’ research

The ‘uses and gratifications’ research talks about how people make use of the media to achieve their own personal agenda, instead of how the media influences people.

Individuals that have a certain degree of power over the media often make use of the media to make their lives better, be it using it for relaxation, entertainment or work.

The researchers of ‘uses and gratifications’ often look at various examples of how people make use of the media to achieve their own personal goals. Some examples would include advertising for their own product on the web through pop-up advertisements and online newspapers. Some would write journals or essays online on modern contemporary issues to bring across their intended message to the audience. More often than not, the readers who are using the media will understand and support their cause or purpose if the intention does not go against their moral values and ideas.

What is interesting is that this theory happens to be the complete opposite of the ‘magic bullet theory’ (which is what we discussed in class recently).  This theory invokes a certain type of response from the audience (uses and gratification theory), as compared to having a passive audience (magic bullet theory).

Some examples could include media users going into the media to find inspirational quotes just to boost their self-esteem, to make themselves feel much better. But the media can also pose a threat to users in the sense that they would follow the world standards of beauty blindly, leading to various mental conditions such as Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa. After seeing their favourite model being so thin and ‘perfect’, their minds will be adversely affected, causing them to starve themselves or lose weight through unethical means just to achieve their desired result.

However, the research on ‘uses and gratifications’ does have it’s flaws. More often than not, the satisfaction that people get from the media relies on how the person intends on conveying the hidden message to the intended audience and how convincing he is. Moreover, audiences of different age groups will have different responses to the message that is being brought across by the person making use of the media.

As the saying goes ‘a picture tells a thousand words’. Often times, ‘lobby groups’ upload many pictures on the internet with a hidden meaning encoded within them to bring across the hidden message to the audience. one example of this could be the use of various cartoons that highlights the importance of healthy exercise to the society. This causes media users to dwell upon what they have read and question their life choices, leading them to changing them.

Therefore, I feel that although there are many cases of the ‘uses and gratification’ theory being true to their cause, the ‘magic bullet’ theory does have it’s successes too. As long as people know how to differentiate between a beneficial piece of media source that benefits their overall well-being and vice versa, then media will become a good tool to all of mankind.