Audience Theory - Blumer and Katz - Visual Essay

The Uses and Gratifications theory by Blumer and Katz represents a change in thinking as researchers begin to describe the effects of the media from the point of view of audiences. This model looks at the motives of the people who use the media, asking why we watch television, films, media products in the way in which we do, why we bother to read newspapers and why we find ourselves so compelled to keep up to date with our favourite soap or consume films.
This theory makes the audience active as they choose what they want to consume and they are not forced into the consumption of a product. For example, you only watch the films you want to as you are in control of your choices. The media simply creates the product. This theory argues that the audience needs to have social and psychological needs which generate certain expectations about the mass media and what they are supposed to. As the audience is the active participant, this allows them to make more choices in relation to what they consume, making oneself in control of what they consume. This does assume that an active audience are making motivated choices which places the audience in control of their own consumerism.
The underlying idea behind the model is that people are motivated by a desire to fulfil, or gratify certain needs. So instead of asking how the media uses us, the model asks how we use the media.

This theory is broken down into 4 needs:

1. Surveillance 
2. Personal Identity
3. Personal Relationships
4. Diversion

Surveillance is based around the idea that people feel better knowing the situations occurring in the world around them and the media making them feel safe. For example, we use the news as a reliable source of information as it makes us feel safer knowing what's going on. Surveillance is also all about awareness as we again use the mass media to be more aware of the world, gratifying a desire for knowledge and security. 

It means that we watch something that reassures the audience and we use media to be helpful in our everyday activities such as the news and the weather, 

Social media can greatly influence how this concept works as fake stories are often created and this gives people a false sense of security,

Personal identity explains how being a subject of the media allows us to confirm the identity and positioning of ourselves within society. The use of media for performing personal identity can been in music videos and films. Pop stars can often become big role models to children which is why there's such an outrage when someone does something wrong which is deemed unacceptable by the public. This allows us to associate and relate to the product directly to make us feel gratified and able to relate to a product. Different genres also allow people to identify in different ways to different elements. For example someone may be able to relate to a romantic film due to their experiences and not identify with a western as they have never identified with it.

Personal Relationships is where the audience use the media within their own personal relationships. It's especially useful as we often use the media as a springboard to form and build on relationships with real people - especially when people have the same interests. This also means that having a favourite TV show in common with someone can usually be a great conversation starter and making talking to strangers a lot easier as you can identify common interests with someone. Many people use television as a form of companionship where they watch it together rather than alone and even if they sit together in silence, they are still able to build on relationships.

Diversion is the need to escape everyday life - also referred to as escapism. We watch things to distract ourselves from our own issues in our lives and we also want to see that other people go through the same experiences that we do which can also help us to deal with are own issues which are of a similar nature. We also watch things to focus on other peoples problems instead of our own which again helps us stay distracted for a while. 

In the music video that I'm analysing has elements of personal identity due its genre and the fact that the lead singer can be seen as a role model. The way he handles the situation of wanting to get a girl is somewhat relatable and also influential as the audience may see elements of themselves within him and his personality and therefore able to relate to the product more and make us feel gratified. This also could influence personal relationships as the content is so relatable to many people, they may use this as a conversation starter and builder to deepen their relationships. They may also use this video as diversion as the content is so identifiable with the audience so people may wish to watch this to escape their everyday issues or to even help find a resolution the problem that they are having if it is the same as demonstrated in the video.