MEDIA THEORY - USES AND GRATIFICATIONS

One influential tradition in media research is referred to as 'Uses and Gratifications' this approach focuses on why people use different forms of media rather than the actual content involved - unlike the approach towards the media effects and impacts on the consumers that assumes a homogeneous mass audience and a hypodermic view of the media - Uses and gratifications are concerned with what the audiences do with media which allows a variety of different interpretations and responses towards different forms and constructions of media. This theory places more focus and concentration on the consumer and audience. This theory follows the idea that audiences are responsible for choosing media and services in which meet their needs and integrates with different characteristics of their personality traits. This theory looks at the audience as an active audience - how the audience and producer engage with each other during the consumption of media. A very popular theory in the early mid 20th century was the effects model which looked at what the media did to the audience - it was an early moral panic which suggested audiences were passive at whatever the media relayed to them. With this model the power itself is with the media. Uses and Gratifications is an alternative theory of media research which takes the viewpoint of audiences being active participants in the exchange of media - in a simplistic way they use the media to satisfy their needs. 

This is Maslow's hierarchy of needs in which fellow media theorists took ideas from to create their approach towards audiences and their needs and how the needs are gratified by the media. 

4 Primary needs that the audience are able to satisfy with:

1 - Surveillance/Seeking information
The words and texts we read to help us learn about the world - needless to say these texts tend to be factual from a personal perspective to feed into the audiences personality traits and intend them to connect thoroughly with the texts. Many audiences watch the news or documentaries, however it is not necessarily information they need to know but it just satisfies their curiosity and informs them of factual texts.   

2 - A sense of personal identity
These are texts or productions that reinforce audiences values or beliefs, this is particularly poignant in the years where audience members are discovering who they are and what it means to be of the female audience or the male audience. This is why many audiences read magazines that target their individual demographics or psychographics as this will make the service more relevant to people their age,gender or class.

3 - Personal relationships
This category acknowledges the tragic truth within life itself as many audiences connect with characters when they are feeling lonesome, such as within series when tv series tend to end the audience members may feel a slight twinge of sadness as it is finishing and they do no longer have fictional characters to relate to. This delves into the idea how we as an audience are able to connect with figures within the media however the audience do not have to exclusively only connect with fictional characters as it may also be characters on television such as those involved in News agencies. 

4 - Diversion 
Lastly this primary need is practically escapism as audiences use media as a diversion from the mundaneness of the real world and lose themselves within tv shows or gaming to distract them from the reality of their lives.

Uses and Gratifications are seen in everyday life, such as cases when we are choosing a personal genre of music - as we select music not only to fit with the particular mood we are feeling but also in attempt or show a motive. There are many different forms of Uses and Gratifications within the media - and one would be the type of product a female or male chooses when shopping for makeup (it fulfills a particular need.) 

This theory is applicable with many peoples engagement within the media and can relate to many different formats of media associated creations.