Uses and Gratifications

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denise Sommer
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Uses And Gratifications ◽  
Media Use ◽  
German Language ◽  
Reference Book ◽  
Language Research ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media Research ◽  
The Many ◽  
Subjective Significance

The ‘uses and gratifications’ approach is quintessential in media research and, at the same time, highly topical. Our need for communication is universal and unique, but expectations of what the media offers change as the media itself changes. If one wants to understand this more precisely, one cannot avoid the uses and gratifications approach. This book provides a well-founded overview of this quintessential theory of media use, explain-ing it using examples and empirical findings, and showing how topical it is in the digital age. It pays particular attention to the many important contributions of German-language research to the approach. As an introduction to theory, it is aimed at students and, at the same time, serves as a reference book for anyone who wants to understand media use according to needs more precisely. Its author has been researching and teaching the subjective significance of the media in everyday life and its effects at various universities for many years.

Uses and Gratifications

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Lance Holbert
Keyword(s):  
Dynamic Modeling ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
General Framework ◽  
Uses And Gratifications ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Theory Development ◽  
Formal Theory ◽  
Research Framework ◽  
Media Research

This chapter summarizes uses and gratifications, a media research framework that asks why people consume certain media forms. The author explains the general framework of this approach to media, outlines the explanatory principles undergirding work of this kind, and identifies what is needed to move this research agenda toward more formal theory development. The issue of how best to measure gratifications sought, gratifications obtained, and media use is discussed. The chapter identifies three areas for potential developments (i.e., dynamic modeling, complementarity, expansion of communication inputs) within the uses and gratifications framework that may benefit political communication scholars. This issue of what media should be defined as “political” is also addressed, with an argument made for the inclusion of entertainment outlets.

scholarly journals The Elderly’s Media Appropriation as Variable for Target Groups

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-43
Author(s):  
Rebekka Haubold ◽  
Sonja Ganguin
Keyword(s):  
Media Literacy ◽  
Media Use ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Chronological Age ◽  
Target Groups ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media Research

Media and media appropriation can be the basis for diversity and also for commonalities, describing target groups more exactly than the chronological age approach does. This paper demonstrates why it is necessary to expand the view of target groups beyond mere classification in the category of age, especially when the focus is placed on the elderly. It establishes that there are other possibilities than age to find also appropriate classification categories for the elderly by means of media appropriation combined with Bourdieu’s forms of capital. This paper suggests that, regardless of whether media use, education or media literacy, if the media research is intended to reach fruitful ends, its instruments need to be developed with media specifically in mind. In this case, they need to be subject-orientated in relation to the media appropriation of the elderly.

scholarly journals Historicizing media, globalizing media research: infrastructures, publics, and everyday life

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 437-453 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph Schroeder
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Media Technologies ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media Research ◽  
The Cold War

AbstractVisions of media spanning the globe and connecting cultures have been around at least since the birth of telegraphy, yet they have always fallen short of realities. Nevertheless, with the internet, a global infrastructure has emerged, which, together with mobile and smartphones, has rapidly changed the media landscape. This far-reaching digital connectedness makes it increasingly clear that the main implications of media lie in the extent to which they reach into everyday life. This article puts this reach into historical context, arguing that, in the pre-modern period, geographically extensive media networks only extended to a small elite. With the modern print revolution, media reach became both more extensive and more intensive. Yet it was only in the late nineteenth century that media infrastructures penetrated more widely into everyday life. Apart from a comparative historical perspective, several social science disciplines can be brought to bear in order to understand the ever more globalizing reach of media infrastructures into everyday life, including its limits. To date, the vast bulk of media research is still concentrated on North America and Europe. Recently, however, media research has begun to track broader theoretical debates in the social sciences, and imported debates about globalization from anthropology, sociology, political science, and international relations. These globalizing processes of the media research agenda have been shaped by both political developments and changes in media, including the Cold War, decolonization, the development of the internet and other new media technologies, and the rise of populist leaders.

scholarly journals Towards a historical understanding of the media event

2016 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 309-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Espen Ytreberg
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
German Language ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Media Technologies ◽  
Media Events ◽  
Language Research ◽  
Production And Distribution ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media Event

The English-language research tradition of studying media events is widely considered to have started with Dayan and Katz’ Media Events. This seminal work is characterised by an emphasis on liveness and broadcast technology as conditions of eventfulness. The German-language tradition of research on historical media events provides a very different approach to studying media events, starting from the 16th-century advent of mechanical production and distribution. Bringing together these strands of research, the article argues for a deepening of the historical dimension in conceiving of media events. After a critical review of the English-language tradition and an overview of key media-historical research contributions particularly from Germany, it discusses three main themes: the role of temporal acceleration over time by means of media technologies; the role of premeditation in events and the tradition of discussing media-generated events as ‘pseudo-events’, and the historically shifting relationships between mediated and non-mediated communication in the event. By way of conclusion, the article relates a historical perspective on media events to recent research and discussion around mediatisation.

scholarly journals Acting on Media: Influencing, Shaping and (Re)Configuring the Fabric of Everyday Life

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sigrid Kannengießer ◽  
Sebastian Kubitschko
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Large Degree ◽  
Active Part ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media Organizations ◽  
The Many

Computerization, digitalization and datafication are by far no neutral or self-dependent occurrences. They are, to a large degree, co-determined by heterogeneous actors who reflect about, construct, configure, manipulate or even control media. The contributors to this issue put the spotlight on these actors and investigate how they influence, shape and (re)configure broader social constellations. Instead of exploring what people <em>do with media</em>, the articles focus on the many ways individuals, civil society initiatives, corporations and social movements <em>act on media</em>. The notion of <em>acting on media</em> denotes the efforts of a wide range of actors to take an active part in the molding of media organizations, infrastructures and technologies that are part of the fabric of everyday life. Therefore, by conceptualizing <em>acting on media</em> as a form of political action, the issue aims to contribute to ongoing discussions on the media practice paradigm.

scholarly journals Symbolic Spaces of Everyday Life

2006 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stina Bengtsson
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Media Use ◽  
The Media ◽  
Symbolic Construction ◽  
Social Interactionist ◽  
Material Space ◽  
Post Industrial ◽  
At Home

Abstract This article presents an analysis of the role of the media in the symbolic construction of work and leisure at home. Dealing with individuals who represent a post-industrial and cultural labour market and who work mainly at home, the analysis focuses upon the ritual transformations of everyday life and the role of the media within it. Leaning on social interactionist Erwin Goffman and his concepts of regions and frames, as well as a dimension of the materiality of culture, this analysis combines a perspective on media use as ritual, transformations in everyday life and the organization of material space From this perspective, the discussion penetrates the symbolic dimension of media use in defining borders of behaviour and activities in relation to work and leisure at home.

scholarly journals Media and Processes of Identity Formation in the Context of Migration

2005 ◽  
Vol 2005 (Occasional Papers) ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharina Ernst ◽  
Heinz Moser
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Social Background ◽  
Cultural Background ◽  
Specific Function ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media Research ◽  
The Impact

In a highly industrialized and media-saturated country like Switzerland children of all origins are strong multimedia users. Switzerland has one of the highest proportions of migrants in Europe: About 20,5 percent of the population are of migrant origin. So far, media research in Switzerland focussing on children and young people has paid no special attention to the extent the cultural background may influence the media use, i.e. whether the media play a specific function in processes of identity-formation for these children. More detailed and qualified information on this topic is of interest when faced with the fact that the social background is still one of the key determinants of a successful career in our society. This paper will discuss first findings of a project focussing on the impact of the cultural background on the media use of children with a migrant background in Switzerland.

Sexually Degrading Music Videos and Lyrics

2012 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric L. Sprankle ◽  
Christian M. End ◽  
Miranda N. Bretz
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Rape Myths ◽  
Music Videos ◽  
Sexual Content ◽  
Sexual Stereotypes ◽  
Male Undergraduate ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Many ◽  
Sexually Degrading ◽  
Music Lyrics

Utilizing a 2 (lyrics: present or absent) × 2 (images: present or absent) design, this study examined the unique effects of sexually degrading music videos and music lyrics on males’ aggressive behavior toward women, as well as males’ endorsement of rape myths and sexual stereotypes. Under the guise of a media memory study, 187 male undergraduate students were randomly assigned to one of four conditions. Despite the many psychological theories predicting an effect, the presentation of sexually degrading content in a visual or auditory medium (or combination thereof) did not significantly alter the participants’ aggression and self-reported endorsement of rape myths and sexual stereotypes. The null findings challenge the many corporate and governmental restrictions placed on sexual content in the media over concern for harmful effects.

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