The uses and gratifications theory proposes that audiences actively engage with media to fulfill certain needs. It was developed in the 1960s as scholars recognized that audiences were not passive but made choices about their media consumption. The theory was later expanded by Blumler and Katz who identified common motivations for media use like diversion from problems, social interaction, personal identity, and information gathering. Uses and gratifications theory has since been applied to new media and aims to understand why people choose certain media formats and content.

1. Academic Theories
USES AND GRATIFICATIONS
THEORY

2. The 1960’s was the year that the first generation grew up with access to
television. It became increasingly apparent to media theorists that audiences
made choices about what they did when consuming texts. Far from being
passive mass, audiences were made up of individuals that actively consumed
texts in different ways. Lasswell suggested in 1948 that media had the following
functions for individuals and society:
• Surveillance
• Correlation
• Entertainment
• Cultural transmission
HISTORY

3. In 1974 researchers Blulmer and Katz expanded this theory and published there
own. This stated that individuals might choose and use a text for the following
purposes (uses and gratifications):
• Diversion- escape from everyday problems and routines
• Personal Relationships- using the media for emotional and other interaction. For
example substituting soap operas for family life
• Personal Identity- finding yourself reflected in texts, learning behavior and
values from texts
• Surveillance- Information which could be useful for living. For example weather
reports, financial news and holiday bargains
THE THEORY

4. Since this time the uses and gratifications theory has been extended, particularly as
new media forms have come along, video games and the internet for example. Such
theories are called the ‘Why do people watch television by Daniel Chandler’ and ‘Uses
and gratifications/dependency theory by E Rossi’.
USES AND GRATIFICATIONS
By studying this theory I am able
to see that I need to include in my
film trailer the sense of the uses
and gratifications theory. For
example, by going to watch my
film you would get that escapism
that this theory suggests that you
need, and also the sense of
personal relationships and identity.
Being able to reflect with what I
intend to portray in my film.