Exploring the Uses and Gratifications Theory in the Use of Social Media among the Students of Mass Communication in Nigeria

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aisar Salihu Musa ◽  
◽  
Mohd Nazri Latiff Azmi ◽  
Nur Salina Ismail ◽  
◽  
...  
Author(s):  
Gokhan Aydin

Changes in consumer behavior enabled by social networking technologies is leading to a transformation in e-commerce. Consumers' use of social media sites and relevant technologies for different aspects of shopping has become an issue of utmost concern to retailers and related businesses. Adopting a uses and gratifications theory (UGT) perspective, the article aims to demonstrate motives of users utilizing social media in their purchase decisions. Drawing from digital marketing and e-commerce literature, relevant uses and gratifications for social commerce (s-commerce) were chosen as information access, escape, entertainment, passing time, cool and new trends, and socialization. The proposed model was analyzed and tested via OLS regression and ANOVA analysis using the data collected from a survey study on 361 subjects in Turkey. Information access, relaxing entertainment, and socialization motives emerged as significant antecedents of s-commerce intentions. No significant effect of demographics on social commerce intentions were observed in the analysis.


2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-179
Author(s):  
Nasir Koranteng Asiedu ◽  
Edwin Ellis Badu

Purpose Social media usage has become popular among the youth. The popularity and acceptance of this tool by the youth in large numbers make it necessary to find out more about the reasons why the youth are so interested in social media sites and as a result rely so much on it in every social engagement irrespective of the dangers or demerits it poses. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach With the adoption of survey methodology, this paper randomly selected 204 students majoring in sociology from University of Ghana and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology to participate in the study. Findings Using the uses and gratifications theory, this study identified the following: WhatsApp was found to be the most widely used social media tool in both institutions; chatting and keeping in touch with loved ones and maintaining distant relationships are the major factors that motivate students in both institutions to use social media sites. The results further indicated that students are highly influenced by social media sites and, therefore, this has become their main medium of communication within and outside campus. Practical implications Social media, one way or the other is controlling the world and everything in it. The exposure of students to this tool requires the taking of certain relevant measures to direct the focus of its usage in tertiary institutions. It is against this background that this paper strongly recommended its integration into the academic system and the enshrinement of social media policies in the handbook of university students in Ghana. Originality/value This paper adds to existing literature on students frequent use of social media and confirms the assumptions of the uses and gratifications theory which simply asks the question why and how people use media.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 44-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gokhan Aydin

Changes in consumer behavior enabled by social networking technologies is leading to a transformation in e-commerce. Consumers' use of social media sites and relevant technologies for different aspects of shopping has become an issue of utmost concern to retailers and related businesses. Adopting a uses and gratifications theory (UGT) perspective, the article aims to demonstrate motives of users utilizing social media in their purchase decisions. Drawing from digital marketing and e-commerce literature, relevant uses and gratifications for social commerce (s-commerce) were chosen as information access, escape, entertainment, passing time, cool and new trends, and socialization. The proposed model was analyzed and tested via OLS regression and ANOVA analysis using the data collected from a survey study on 361 subjects in Turkey. Information access, relaxing entertainment, and socialization motives emerged as significant antecedents of s-commerce intentions. No significant effect of demographics on social commerce intentions were observed in the analysis.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 3162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ives Gogan ◽  
Ziqiong Zhang ◽  
Elizabeth Matemba

Recently, several studies on information systems have applied the Uses and Gratifications theory to investigate individual use of social media, and have reported the role of different gratifications in predicting users’ behaviors. However, no attention was given to the influence of these gratifications on users’ emotional states (satisfaction and emotional commitment). To address this research gap, the current study integrates the Uses and Gratifications theory and the Stimulus-Organism-Response theory to provide a theoretical background for the impacts of gratification on consumers’ emotional states and continuance use intention. The study has proposed a theoretical model that was tested on data collected from 252 Sina Weibo users in China. The results revealed that social gratification is the most important factor influencing users’ satisfaction and emotional commitment. In addition, we report the roles that user satisfaction and emotional state provide in predicting users’ continuance intention. The theoretical and practical implications of the proposed theory are also discussed.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiayi Wang

Abstract This study explores how and why people are impolite in danmu. Danmu refers to anonymous comments overlaid on videos uploaded to video-sharing sites. Although there is wide recognition that impoliteness prevails in danmu, the questions of how and why people are impolite in this context have rarely been investigated. This study addresses this lacuna of research. Using both an analysis of comments identified as impolite by participants and an analysis of focus group interview data, this research identified seven impoliteness strategies, covering both conventionalised formulae and implicational impoliteness. By applying uses and gratifications theory, this study identified five uses and gratifications for performing impoliteness in danmu: social interaction, entertainment, relaxation, expression of (usually differing) opinions and finding connections. The dialectic of resonance and opposition that emerged from the data helped explain why impolite comments tended not to be perceived as inappropriate in danmu. Thus, this study contributes to the emerging research on impoliteness in social media.


2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 475-494 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anatoliy Gruzd ◽  
Caroline Haythornthwaite ◽  
Drew Paulin ◽  
Sarah Gilbert ◽  
Marc Esteve del Valle

This research was motivated by an interest in understanding how social media are applied in teaching in higher education. Data were collected using an online questionnaire, completed by 333 instructors in higher education, that asked about general social media use and specific use in teaching. Education and learning theories suggest three potential reasons for instructors to use social media in their teaching: (1) exposing students to practices, (2) extending the range of the learning environment, and (3) promoting learning through social interaction and collaboration. Answers to open-ended questions about how social media were used in teaching, and results of a factor analysis of coded results, revealed six distinct factors that align with these reasons for use: (1) facilitating student engagement, (2) instructor’s organization for teaching, (3) engagement with outside resources, (4) enhancing student attention to content, (5) building communities of practice, and (6) resource discovery. These factors accord with a Uses and Gratifications perspective that depicts adopters as active media users choosing and shaping media use to meet their own needs. Results provide a more comprehensive picture of social media use than found in previous work, encompassing not only the array of media used but also the range of purposes associated with use of social media in contemporary teaching initiatives.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 205630512110190
Author(s):  
Amber L. Ferris ◽  
Erin E. Hollenbaugh ◽  
Paul A. Sommer

The purpose of this research is to test the uses and gratifications model (U&G) with respect to addictive outcomes for young adult social media users. Two cross-sectional survey studies were completed with college students aged 18–25 years. Study 1 applied path analysis with regression to determine how individual traits, motives, and dependency related to intrusive and emotional consequences of addiction ( N = 373). Results indicated that, among other predictor variables, being dependent on social media for personal understanding was associated with increased emotional consequences of addiction. In Study 2, the functional alternative of interpersonal interaction and frequency of social media use were included to more fully test the U&G model with structural equation modeling ( N = 446). Interpersonal interaction was a significant predictor in the intrusive consequences model. Participants who reported engaging in more offline interpersonal interactions that engaged in heavy use of social media found it to be more intrusive in their lives. In addition, being dependent on social media to understand oneself mediated the relationships between various motives and emotional consequences of addiction. Taken together, results of these studies supported U&G. Contextual age variables were found to be related to motives, dependency, and addictive consequences. In addition, motives in both studies were important variables in explaining addictive consequences.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-25
Author(s):  
Nyabera N. Samwel ◽  
Agnes Lucy Lando

This paper investigates the use of Social Media by Public Relations departments in two large private universities in Kenya. Social media are web-based applications where the creation of profiles and connections of people takes place. Social media use is constantly growing amongst organizations, as technology and globalization evolve, so do the role of Public Relations hence becoming inevitable in everyday practice. Despite the availability of social media platforms, little is known on how they are used to communicate. Contrariwise, the extant literature discloses that at present, there is moderately negligible research with focus on the use of social media in public relations in private organizations. This study is grounded on the outcomes of a research submitted in lieu of a Doctoral degree in Mass Communication at the St Augustine University of Tanzania involving 270 survey participants and 2 in-depth interviews. Data was generated using questionnaires and analysed using SPSS version 23 whereas interviews were analysed thematically. Findings reveal that University K and St Paul University use social media to: publicize activities; send information to the public; change public opinion; enhance information value; lobby public support as well as to provide the public with a question-and-answer platform. This paper highlights need to pay more attention to the content and public’s need besides embracing other available social media tools and technologies to promote trust amongst the public and the organization. And also, need to devise means of adjusting to the inevitable changes regularly besides diverse approaches in strengthening PR practice and regulation.


Author(s):  
Suseela Rao Sayana

Abstract: Social Media, in the present era of electronic revolution has become the means and end of all communication as such the democracies are wondering if social media can be a valid indicator to predict election end-results. Keeping in view the demand and surge in the use of social media like Face Book, Twitter etc. the present exploration work towards the scrutiny whether the social media had any consequence on the 2014 General Elections end-results. A huge number of social media whispers for 120 days from 5th January to 5th March, 2014 of sufficient political parties in India have been considered for the present exploration. It clearly speaks that, social media whispers, occupied paramount importance on the end-results of General Elections 2014. Keywords: Political campaigns, Web technologies, Advertising, Internet, Digital Landscape, Social media tool, Mass communication


First Monday ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco Segado-Boj ◽  
Jesús Díaz-Campo ◽  
Erika Fernández-Gómez ◽  
María-Ángeles Chaparro-Domínguez

This study examines Spanish academics’ motives for using social networking sites (SNS) and their perceptions regarding the limitations of and drawbacks to social media. We analyse 18 in-depth interviews conducted with Spanish university professors chosen according to their disciplines, academic ranks and level of use. Our findings confirm prior research based on the uses and gratifications theory. Thus, we conclude that SNS are used for managing content, identifying experts in a researcher’s field of knowledge. In addition, academics need to manage different personal identities in each SNS they use.


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