1. 3 quick and easy
AUDIENCE THEORIES
 USES &GRATIFICATION THEORY (pleasure)
Blumler and Katz (1979) theorised that these uses and gratifications fell into four categories:
Diversion – something to pass the time
Personal Relationships – something which allows you to make more productive friendships, for
example by giving you something to talk to your friends about
Personal Identity – something which allows you to define who you are
Surveillance – something which allows you to find out about the world around you
 David Morley (1991) argued that there were five types of uses and gratifications:
Cognitive (learning – the text helps you find out something)
Affective (the text affects you and provides emotional satisfaction)
Tension Release (the text allows you to relax or let off steam)
Personal Integrative (the text helps you to define your own personal identity)
Social Integrative (the text helps you with social interactions e.g. by providing a topic of
conversation or way or interacting with others)
 Richard Dyer’s Utopian Solutions theory
“Utopia” is an imaginary ideal world
Richard Dyer argues that “entertainment offers the
image of ‘something better’ to set against the realities
of day-to-day existence.”
This is the idea of “escapism”
Inside the world of a video game your existence can be “better” than in the reality of day-to-day
existence