The Social Media Revolution 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SuNx0UrnEo

DO WE CONSUME MEDIA OR DOES MEDIA CONSUME US?

Duke Woodley, Judy Grados, Daniel Munhoz and Ilse Genovese

Uses and Gratification Theory Group ProjectMontgomery College /USG, 2012

What do you think?Do we consume media or does media consume us?

LET’S FIND OUT

UGT

How and why people select certain media to satisfy their needs and interests.

Katz, Blumler, and Gurevitch (1974)

What’s UGT about?

Some history

Functional theories on communication — 1920s-1940s

Limited Effects Paradigm —1950s-1970s

Uses and Gratification Theory— 1974-todate

http://www.newseum.org/warstories/interviews/mp3/journalists/bio.asp?ID=28

1.Which mass media do you use?

2.Why?

QUIZ

McQuail, Blumler, Brown’s four categories of media uses (1972)

Katz. Blumler, Gurevitch’s research on selective attitudes to mass media (1973-4)

Important Research

PASS TIME COMPANIONSHIP EXCITEMENT ESCAPE ENJOYMENT SOCIAL INTERACTION RELAXATION OBTAINING INFORMATION LEARNING ABOUT SPECIFIC CONTENT

Reasons for media use

Gratifications obtained via media use

Parasocial interaction

DiversionPersonal

relationshipsPersonal identitySurveillance

Videogaming NOW and BEFORE

Changing media uses

1. The audience is active and its media use is goal oriented

Key UGT assumptions

Key UGT assumptions

2. The initiative of picking a specific medium to satisfy a specific need rests with the audience member

Key UGT assumptions

3. The media compete with other media sources for need satisfaction

Key UGT assumptions

4. People have a pretty good idea of what motivates their media use, and can accurately describe this to researchers

Key UGT assumptions

5. Value judgments of media content can only be assessed by the audience

The Active Audience

Media consumers can engage in the following types of activity.

UTILITYINTENTIONALITYSELECTIVITYIMPERVIOUSNESS TO

INFLUENCE

To sum up

Audience-centered theory: Audiences have free will

in choosing media. The power rests with the

media user.

Your turn to talk about media

Integration

Communication Tradition: Socio-

Psychological

Communication Context:

Mass/Media

Approach to knowing: Positivistic/Empiri

cal

Theory critique“… crassly atheoretical, perversely eclectic,ensnared in the pitfalls of functionalism and flirting with the positions at odds with their functionalist origins.” (Blumler 1979)

Theory critique

Is there an Active Audience? Lack of theoretical coherence Some terminology needs to be better

defined. Reliance on the functional use of

media; the danger is, the media can be reckless.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4KnawqvugU

QUESTIONS?

Thank you . You are definitely an audience that will not let media consume you.