The uses and gratifications theory suggests that audiences actively seek out media to fulfill certain needs, including personal relationships, diversion, personal identity, and surveillance. It proposes that media are produced to satisfy these audience needs. Specifically, personal relationships refer to using media as a way to connect with others, diversion is using media for escapism and relaxation, personal identity is finding media that reflects oneself, and surveillance is keeping up with topics of interest. An example given is that people may read music magazines both to learn about their favorite bands (identity) and to have conversations with friends who also read it (relationships).

1. Uses and Gratifications
The uses and Gratifications theory was thought of by Blumer and Katz’s. What this theory suggests is
that the audience has a big influence on the media that is produced. The user seeks out the best
source of media that require.
The 4 needs of a user are:
Personal Relationships
Diversion
Personal Identity
Surveillance
Personal Relationships means that people intake the media as to give them a way of forming
relationships with other people. An example would be if a group of people talked about football all
the time, you might buy 4-4-2 magazine, so you could create a bridge with that social group.
Diversion is the need to escape the troubles of their own life and indulge of something away from
the stressors of their life. To take in a source of media and relax.
Personal Identity means that we try to find things in the media that reflect and relate to us. To help
us try to know ourselves a little better.
Surveillance means what it says, surveying something. If you bought a gossip magazine you would be
surveying the world of celebrity gossip. It is the need to keep up to date with whatever that bit of
media is covering.
This has diversion because reading this you would
feel as if separate to your normal life, and part of the
musical world.
Surveillance here as you find out James Glasvegas’s
latest antics.
Personal Identity could be to do with the lead singer
of Muse, or all the other artists listen down the side.
Personal Relationships because if your friends also
read this magazine, they would want to talk about
what Muse have to say and what Tyler The Creator is
releasing, so you would have to read this also to stay
in that loop.