Question

uses and gratification theory: what was going on in society at the time the theory was developed which helped lead up to the theory?

Answer 1

Mass communication scholars today refer to as the Uses and Gratification Approach is generally recognised to be a subtradition of media effects research. Uses and Gratification has always provided a cutting edge theoretical approach in the initial stages of new mass communication medium: newspaper, radio and television. Emergence of computer- mediated communication has revived the signifcance of uses and gratifications

Early in the history of communication research , an approach was developed to study gratifications that attract and hold audiences to the kinds of media and the types of the content that satisfy their social and psychological needs. Research studies on other media effects sought to discover motives and selection patterns of audiences for the new mass media.These studies were conducted on the radioaudience,reading, quiz programs and gratification from radio daytime serials, motives for listening to serious music , children's interest in comics , functions of newspaper reading and different media genres.Each of these studies formulated a list of functions served either by some specific content or by the medium itself.

List of functions include:

• To match one's wits against others
• To get information and advice for daily living
• To provide a framework for one's day
• To prepare oneself culturally for the demands of upward mobility
• To be reassured about the dignity and usefulness of one's role

This latter focus of research, conducted in a social-psychological mode, and audience based crystallized into Uses and Gratification Approach by McQuail 1994