Uses and Gratification Theory

After careful review over the objects talked about in Chapter 2, the thing that was most interesting were the social science perspectives. One in particular though, the Uses and Gratifications Theory. I found this one to be most interesting because it was the only theory that involved people using the media how they needed. Not the media influencing and controlling the people.
The Uses and Gratification Theory says that it is “based on the ways media consumers actively choose and use media to meet their own needs.” Instead of asking the traditional question “What effect do media have on people?” uses and gratifications researchers ask, “What do people do with media?” My opinion is that we influence the media in the first place. The media only reports on things that people are going to find interesting. I think we control the media more than the media would let us realize.
The theory actually compliments people by saying that we are the “decision makers who choose, sometimes deliberately and sometimes less consciously, which media to use and how to use them.”
There are many ways in which we use the media. There is the surveillance method in which we keep informed about the world. We use this media most often in the United States normally when something involving money or government. People tend to disregard things in other countries unless it involves the economy or important government issues. There is also the diversion method, which we use to escape “from the pressures of the real world through entertainment.” I believe this method is the most commonly used. We use this when we go on YouTube, watch primetime television, when we go to the theatre, or if we watch a movie at home. Another method we choose media is by conversational currency, which we use for “up-to-date on topics to talk about.” This is mostly used when we read the headline articles in newspapers and on news websites. We can also obtain it through television programming like local news programs and entertainment news shows. One of the final ways we use the media is through social integration. “Connecting with others by using shared knowledge acquired through the media,” uses this method. Social integration is very wide spread it is the media that generally everyone can relate to. It is news about an Ipod, the president, presidential nominees, video games, top 40 in music, etc.

I chose the Uses and Gratification Theory because I believe it. I go to the media I want. I use it how I see fit. Media will not control me. I will go against the flow. I will be my own person.