Uses and gratifications theory is a popular media approach to understanding the needs of consumers; it asks what people do with media. The audience take an active role in interpreting and integrating media into their own lives. The theory suggests that the audience chose media to meet their needs. The most common reason for media usage is:
- To gain information= finding out about relevant events, their surroundings, their society, the world, seeking advice, satisfy curiosity, to learn.
- To gain a personal identity= reinforce personal values, finding models of behaviour, identifying with someone in the media, gaining insight into themselves.
- For integration and social interaction= gain social empathy, identify with others, gain sense of belonging, substitute for real-life companionship, being able to connect with family, friends and society.
- For entertainment= Escaping their problems, relaxing, aesthetic enjoyment, filling time, emotional release.
Strengths of the uses and gratifications theory are that it gives the director and creator something to base their film on; making sure that the film will be able to reflect on all four subject areas. However that can be a weakness as it can stump creative flow by making sure your product matches all of the four areas. Strength of this is that when creating your media product you knows how the audience will consume the product, so when you create the product you can try look at areas more in depth. A bad weakness is that the film will not be able to appeal to everyone’s wants and needs for a media product.
We will be using the uses and gratification theory to help us to target our audience by trying to make sure our film includes the four points above. So the audience will gain total satisfaction from our media product.
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