Uses and Gratification

Media is used by several reasons by the audience;

• Entertainment
• Information
• Personal Identity
• Social Interaction

These reasons and ideas are linked into the Blumler and Katz theory; Uses and Gratification. Entertainment is media that makes us feel emotions, information is media that tells us facts, personal identity is media that reinforces who you are or aren’t, and social interaction is media that allows you to create links with other people – for example if you see some information on the news you can then share the media with other people.

With this knowledge it will help and give me help with my music magazine because I will need to consider  ways to promote my magazine and ways to get a bigger and broader audience. My knowledge will also help with my editing skills because I will need to arrange collages and work out ways of how to produce my media creatively. Blumler and Katz’s theory will also impact me when I am producing my magazine because it will help me direct my magazine to fit the uses and gratifications. For example I could use a popular band to help with my advertising which would draw people in to reading my magazine because they personally identify with that band, however I will use as many uses and gratifications as possible to maximise my audience.

My Collage

My collage is called ‘My Media World’ and it shows the ways that I consume media through the Blumler and Katz theory. I have included images of media that I use for entertainment, such as social media apps and BBC iPlayer. For information I have included platforms of media like ITV News, The Guernsey Press and BBC Radio 2. For me, I personally connect with specific films and television shows like The Big Bang Theory and The Parent Trap, as well as listening to Ben Platt and Declan McKenna on Spotify – this is my personal identity. And finally I am able to connect to my friends and my family through social media platforms like Youtube, television shows like How I Met Your Mother and films that are produced by Marvel – social interaction. I labelled some of my images with the headings from Blumler and Katz’s theory to highlight what I use media for.