Adeola Abdulateef Elega

2.7.2 Uses and Gratification Theory 
Uses and Gratification Theory came on board in 1970 as a reaction to a traditional 
mass communication research and the idea was that audience members are active and 
they have a reason for using a particular media in a preferred way. The theory 
basically explains the use of the media by individuals, groups and the society at large 
with major emphasis on the fact that audience members are active. The main 
statement of this theory is to know how individuals use the mass media to give 
satisfaction to their needs, to know the reason why they use it and to know the merits 
and demerits of their usage. Uses and Gratification theory grants the understanding 
that the media audience don’t take everything they get from the media and they all 
don’t have same reason to use a particular medium (Theory clusters, 2010). 
Katz, Blumler & Gurevitch (1974) accedes that the use of the uses and gratification 
approach in the framework of communication studies should be in the process of 
making an attempt to understand how individuals use a form of communication to 

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gratify their needs over other options which the environment has provided for them. 
This approach in communication has some suppositions and they are; 
 Audience members are goal oriented and this makes them an active user of 
the media. They don’t just absorb all they get. The idea is that if they use it 
they have a reason to use it. It is more about the content and what thirst of the 
audience the particular medium can slake. 
 A major assumption of this theory is that audience members use the media 
and the media does not use them and this makes it unpredictable for direct 
effects on attitudes of audience members. 
 The media does enjoy the monopoly of gratification of the need of audience 
members. It competes with other need gratifying sources of audience 
members. Audience members can do a good number of things that they do to 
gratify needs with the media with other things. For example, if you follow use 
Facebook to pass time, you can go hang out with friends or go to the gym to 
pass time. 
 Audience members provide the news and programs that the media dish out. If 
they can do that then they can reasonably cope with their needs without a