INTRODUCTION

By Jemima k

USES AND GRATIFICATIONS THEORY (UGT)

IS AN APPROACH TO UNDERSTANDING WHY AND HOW PEOPLE ACTIVELY SEEK OUT SPECIFIC MEDIA TO SATISFY SPECIFIC NEEDS

The theory holds that audience are responsible for choosing media to their needs.

Audience are responsible for choosing media to meet their needs.

Helps to meet the specific gratifications.

Suggest that different media compete against other sources.

NEEDS FOR GRATIFICATION Cognitive needs Affective needs Personal Integrative needs Social Integrative needs Tension free needs

COGNITIVE NEEDS People use the media

for acquiring knowledge and information.

An example Zain Africa or Omo pick a box that would assess people on their wide-ranging knowledge. Like the History, science, news and languages

PERSONAL INTEGRATIVE NEEDS

It is the self-esteem desires

An example advertisement of Jumia online, the individuals who are using try to show that they are in the next level therefore they don’t need to go common “mwanachi” shop to get what they want rather the shop is the one that comes from them

SOCIAL INTEGRATIVE NEEDS It comprises the necessity

to socialize with the family, friends and relation in the society

Time and distance has become a factor in the society today that people prefer to interact through the social media (Facebook, twitter, Badoo, Tagged) in the comfort of their sit at any time.

Example: Recently when President Mugabe tripped. Media was used to send funny pictures of him falling at different places of which you didn’t have a circle of friends who had a sense of humor you will not have gotten it.

TENSION FREE NEEDS Media is mostly used

to escape the reality and to relieve tension

Example: Good series such as Prison Break was watched widely because it gave people satisfaction as the actor tried to get solution to get out of the prison.

USES OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF MEDIA

Diversion

Personal

relationships

Personal identity

Surveillance

SEVEN USES AND GRATIFICATIONS Accessibility/mobility Relaxation Escape Entertainment Information seeking Coordination for business Socialization/affection seeking Status seeking

ASSUMPTIONS Value results of media content can only

be assessed by the audience. The audience is active and its media use

is goal oriented The media compete with other resources

for need satisfaction. The initiative in linking need gratification

to a specific medium choice rests with the audience member.

CRITICISM All research are based on survey. Its hard to determine the gratification

of needs. It is focused too narrowly on the

individual and neglects the social structure and place of the media in that structure.

CONCLUSION U&G theory within this new media

technology, it is an evolving psychological, sociological, and cultural context, we should be able to expect a highly functional theory for the 21st century.

RECEPTION THEORY

INTERPRETATION The theory is a version of the readers

response literary that emphasizes the readers reception of literary text.

It takes a closer look at what is actually going on when an audience encounters a media text.

Also focuses on the audience themselves and how they come to a particular understanding view of a text.

RECEPTION AUDIENCE Dominant (hegemonic) reading. Reader fully

shares the text codes and accepts reproduce the preferred reading. E.g political Speech

Negotiated reading. Reader partly shares the text code and broadly accepts the preferred text.

Oppositional (counter-hegemonic) reading. Reader whose social situation places them in a directly oppositional relation to the dominant code. (E.g Man u and Arsenal game)

HALL MODEL PREMISES.I. The same event can be encoded in

more than one wayII. The message contains more than one

possible reading.III. Understanding the message can be a

problematic process, regardless of how natural it may seem.

CONCLUSION

In essence, the meaning of a text is not inherent within the text itself, but its created within the relationship between the text and the reader