Uses and Gratifications model

Blumler and Katz 1974
The 'Uses and Gratifications' model represented a change in thinking, as researchers began to describe the effects of the media from the point of view of audiences. The model looks at the motives of the people who use the media, asking why they watch the television programmes that they do, why they bother to read newspapers and magazines, and also why they find themselves so compelled to keep up to date with their favourite TV shows, and soap operas.
Blumler and Katz argued that the audience needs have social and psychological origins, which generate certain expectations about and within the mass media, leading to differential patterns of media exposure. This resulted in both the gratification of needs and in other (often unintended) consequences. This does assume an active audience making motivated choices.

Explaining the model
The idea behind the model is that people are motivated by a desire to fulfill, or gratify certain needs. So rather than asking how the media uses us, the model asks we use the media. The nmodel is broken down into four different needs:

• Surveillance
• Personal Identity
• Personal Relationships
• Diversion

Surveillance
The surveillance need is based around the idea that people will feel better having the familiar feelings that they know, and what is going on in the world around them. The surveillance model is all about awareness. We use the mass media to be more aware of the world, gratifying a desire for knowledge and security. We can associate to the dominant messages of conforming via the dominant ideologies given in media texts such as music videos.

Example: Blink 182 - All The Small Things



Blink 182 are a band that have been around for longer than a decade, and are still creating iconic and popular indie/punk music. Yet their most famous song, is All The Small Things. Even people who aren't fans of the band, always know this one song. The music video tot he song is also iconic, and an insult to those boy bands of a mainstream genre. In the music video, Blink 182 take the 'mick' out of several boyfriends who were around at the time. To do this, the band dressed up in ridiculous outfits, such as combat whilst dancing with other women. Another iconic scene being when one of the band members is being windswept by a fan, pulling faces at the camera. In which the video when zooms out to show the band member sitting on the toilet, grabbing hold of some toilet roll. The video became instantly famous, and also an outrage for some as it insulted those of a mainstream genre - as well as this, it also discussed topics around at the time within the music industry.

Personal Identity
The personal identity need explains how being a subject of the media allows us to re-affirm the identity and positioning of ourselves within the society. The use of the media for forming personal identity can be seen in music videos and also films. Pop stars can often become big role models, inspiring young children everywhere. This is also why there is such an outcry when one of them does something wrong. An example of this being the time when Justin Bieber was photographed smoking drugs, and his fans became heart broken and began self harming. This became a trending phase upon twitter, which then lead to more and more fans doing the exact same thing.

Personal Relationships
This section comes in two parts: Relationships with the Media, and Using the Media Within Relationships.
We can form a relationship with the media, and also use the media to form a relationship with others. Many people use the television as a form of companionship. This may seem sad, but think about how many times you've watched the TV on your own, or with the other people (family or friends) in silence. The television is often quite an intimate experience, and by watching the same people on a regular basis we can often feel very close to them, as if we even know them. When presenters or characters in a soap die, those who have watched that person a lot in a TV show, often grieve and become emotional when the character is gone, it almost feels as though they've lost a friend.

Pink
An example of growing with a character or artist, is the artist Pink. A lot of people were listening to her music when she first started off with early songs such as Family Portrait. Which was a video about the stories of her life, from when she was a little girl up until this song was released.

Since then, Pink has released more music videos, yet all of them have meaning to either her life, or at least the narrative/meaning within the lyrics. This allowing an audience to grow, as she does, as well as letting the audience in on her personal life, and what she has been through.

The more we watch the same personalities, the more we feel we get to know them. Reality TV shows such as Big Brother, or I'm a Celebrity give us such a feeling of intimacy with the participants that they can become a part of our lives. Even though the relationship is completely one-sided, it's easy to see how we can fall in love with TV personalities.

Using the Media Within Relationships
Another aspect to the personal relationships model is how we can sometimes use the media as a board to form and build upon relationships with real people. Having a favourite TV programme in common can often start a conversation, and can even make talking to strangers much easier. Some studies suggest that some families use sitting around watching the television as a stimulant for conversation, talking to each other about the programme, the characters, or related anecdotes whilst it is on.

Diversion
The diversion need describes what's commonly termed as escapism - watching the television so we can forget about our own lives and problems for a while and think about something else instead. We watch music videos to take our mind off our every day lives, we want to distract ourselves from the problems we are experiencing. We want to see that people experience the same feelings as we do, and want to forget about our own problems and focus on someone else's. 

Criticisms
The researcher Ian Ang also criticized Uses and Gratifications approach in three aspects:

• It is highly individualistic, taking into account only the individual psychological gratification derived from media use. The social context of the media use tends to be ignored. This overlooks the fact that some media use may have nothing to do with the pursuit of gratification - it may be forced upon the audience for example.
• There is relatively little attention paid to media content, researchers attending to why people use the media, but less to what meanings they actually get out of their media use.
• The approach starts from the view that the media are always functional to people, and may thus implicitly offer a justification for the way the media are currently organized.