Georgiana Angus

The uses and gratification theory, asking the question on "What people do with media?" instead of what media does to people. It focuses more on the audience and the consumer instead on the production and the message, such as the HYPODERMIC NEEDLE MODEL. It's the idea that audiences understand and know why they consume media text and are active in the consumption. It suggests that people use media to fulfil certain aspects of their lives, that audiences use media for gratification.

There are a few different ways that people use media within this theory.

People use media because they like to identify with the characters or situations the media text is portraying. It can be used to help them understand themselves, or their lives and may actually be beneficial to the consumer. This section is coming up an awful lot in the media relating to representation of minority groups so those said groups have a character to identify with. For example the lack of representation of People Of Colour is a huge problem in the media as it means a vast majority of the audience does not have a character to self identify with.

People use media as a way to educate themselves on the world and people around them, this one is pretty self explanatory.

People use media to be entertained, they use it to get enjoyment out of it. In other words it can be used for escapism from everyday life. That might be why fantasy is such a massive genre as within it you can experience things that would not be possible with the constrains of our world.

People use media as a way to be able to have social interactions. Such as talking about that new episode of the walking dead, or having a book discussion online. One of the many reasons people find new media text is because of the social stigma around that text.

As media is such a major part of our society I asked a few people why they think people consume media as who is better to answer this question, but the people who consume it.

"People consume media because it gives people the opportunity to look at topics from other perspective so we can gain an understanding of how other people look at those topics, which could influence the way we see the world."