Reception theory focuses on how individual readers and cultural contexts shape the interpretation of artistic works like paintings, novels, and films over time with changes in economics, lifestyle, beliefs, and technology. Uses and gratification theory proposes that people actively seek out specific media to fulfill needs like knowledge, relaxation, social interaction, diversion or escape. It assumes people are not passive media consumers but actively interpret and integrate media. Unlike other theories, it holds that audiences choose media to meet desires and needs for gratification, and different media compete for viewers in this way.

1. ‘Reception Theory’ and the
‘Uses and Gratification
Theory’

2. Reception Theory
• Reception theory is a version of reader response literary
theory that emphasizes the reader's reception of a literary
text. It is more generally called audience reception in the
analysis of communications models.
• Reception theory has been applied to many different art
forms and has even been used in the analysis of landscape
architecture and archeological studies. Many factors can
shape the interpretation of a work of art, whether it be a
painting, novel or film. With each of these particular art
forms, reception theory recognizes not just the validity of
individual interpretation, but also cultural interpretations
that shift as a result of changes in
economics, lifestyle, religious beliefs and innovations in
technology.

3. Uses and Gratification Theory
•
Uses and gratifications theory (UGT) is an approach to
understanding why and how people actively seek out specific media
to satisfy specific needs. UGT is an audience-centered approach to
understanding mass communication. Diverging from other media
effect theories that question "what do media do to people?", UGT
focuses on "what do people do with media?”
•
UGT discusses how users deliberately choose media that will satisfy
given needs and allow one to enhance knowledge, relaxation, social
interactions/companionship, diversion, or escape
•
It assumes that audience members are not passive consumers of
media. Rather, the audience has power over their media
consumption and assumes an active role in interpreting and
integrating media into their own lives. Unlike other theoretical
perspectives, UGT holds that audiences are responsible for choosing
media to meet their desires and needs to achieve gratification. This
theory would then imply that the media compete against other
information sources for viewers' gratification.

4.  The impact this will have on my planning and research is
that when people are buying digipaks and looking at a
magazine advert, it has to attract their eye on what they
want and it’s mostly the visual representations that are
the main attractions. The audience type that will be
buying my digipak is an active audience, which means
that they purposely are going out of their way to find the
digipak they like. Whereas with the magazine advert, it
is more a passive audience so I really have to make the
visual representations stand out so it attracts my
intended audience. Therefore, I have to consider that my
planning for each product is going to have to be different
to attract the two different types of audiences.