Personal Media Usage and Gratification - Essay Example

?My media uses and gratification Introduction It is a common question to ask what the media do to people, but with the existence of ‘uses and gratifications theory’, it is the other way around. In this theory, there is a good point to understand what people do with the media in order to gratify their desires (Larson 352). People are said to be motivated by desire (Popkin and Stroll 81). It is in line with this reasoning that they are actually able to freely use the media based on their ability to gratify their needs. Humans have varying needs to gratify, but these can be generally categorized as cognitive, affective, personal integrative, social integrative and tension free (Paolo 60). In other words, people from all walks of life seek to gratify their needs in line with surveillance or information, personal identity, personal relationships or integration and social interaction, and diversion or entertainment (Marris and Thornham 258). All of these are integral parts of my media uses and gratification discussed in the following sections. Presented in this paper is the analysis of how my media use can illustrate the uses and gratifications theory with alternate perspective of magic bullet theory. Watching television Uses and gratifications theory There are many reasons why I need to watch television. I have personal desires that could be addressed if I watch the television. I could be entertained. It can relax me at some certain level and it is a form of recreation activity for me, and including the people around. In other words, television can address my affective needs which include emotions and pleasures. People have varying emotional needs and watching television seems to gratify them. The very example is watching television that may substantially result to emotional release or sexual arousal. People can cry with sentimental soup opera or be sexually aroused with TV programs with depiction of highly erotic scenes. The above illustration shows that watching television is a form of activity that gratifies one’s specific needs as motivated by personal desire. This also shows that people have significant things to do with television based on gratifying their needs. There are different reasons or intentions why watching television is a must for some people. At some point, television could be a source of information like TV news report or weather forecast, current affairs and live events around the world including popular sports. As for me, watching television is also a source of information. I watch television in order to be also updated with the current economic, political and social status of the country and around the world. In other words, television also helps me gratify my cognitive needs. Magic bullet theory These are specific things I need from watching television, but along the way there are also other things that I encountered which are not integral parts of my needs. For example, commercial advertisements give me specific idea about the latest trend in fashion. Although I also have personal integrative needs, I am not expecting to find them out from watching television. Watching commercial advertisements from television increases my ideas on the latest fashion trends, diet techniques and many more. In other words, it is in this aspect that I am being influenced by the television because it was not my desire to find my needs for fashion trend or diet in there. This is the main point of the magic bullet theory, which states that the audience is substantially influenced by the media due to their being passive and communication has powerful effect on attitudes and behaviors (Kelly 352). It is therefore important to point out that apart from my personal needs as what motivate me to watch television; there are other personal needs that could be addressed by it outside of my innermost desire or intention. It is at this point that television has substantially influenced me not because of my desire to find my needs fulfilled by it, but because it has specifically just informed me beyond my desire for some specific information or knowledge. Internet surfing Uses and gratifications theory I surf the internet to connect with my friends. I used social networking sites to stay in touch with them. The internet is always able to address my desire to gratify my social integrative needs. I always have the freedom to open whatever link I want which could essentially meet my various personal needs. The very common links I usually keep connected with are the social networking sites. It is through these sites that various people around the world became friends, for whatever purpose or reason it might be. Some may use these sites to find for business partners or just simply connect with an old friend. This substantially illustrates the fact that people are actually looking forward to widen their horizon in communication system for other special reasons and with the aid of the internet, such desire was made possible. For me, it is in this reason why the uses and gratifications theory is applicable in the case of internet surfing. Based on a personal experience, this theory applies to situations in which the user has specific needs to be gratified. As for me, since I have specific personal needs to be fulfilled in opening some internet sites, I have control over the internet on how I have to use it, what specific time and how much time to be spent for it. In other words, the reason why I can do such thing like this is because I have set personal objectives that need to be met by the use of the internet. However, there are some times when using an internet seems just a form of entertainment or just a way to fill in my vacant times or there is just nothing much more significant to be addressed about. In other words, surfing the internet is just a way to make time pass while waiting for another schedule to be fulfilled such as the next class. Whatever type of need this may be, it is still one of the forms of human needs motivated by desire. This again illustrates the ability of the user to do something about the internet. I personally believe that it is the person’s desire that substantially motivates him or her to use the internet. It is not the other way around that the internet influences the person. After all, it is the human who invented the internet in order to satisfy specific needs. Along the process of instituting it, there were various modifications involved in order to address these various needs. Internet was enhanced even better. For instance, fast internet speed is available nowadays. There are already many existing sites with different topics or contents. People can communicate with the entire world with whatever topics through blogs, social networking sites and many others. Magic bullet theory The internet has both positively and negatively affected the society and it is just an aftermath of the move to try to address various specific human needs. For example, the internet is a way to increase the horizon of global business. To fulfill this, it can also be used in such a way it could help address various human desires and needs. For instance, the widespread of sites containing adult contents such as pornography is an indication that internet has become a way to gratify human emotional and sexual arousal. These sites are all intended for adults who could be identified with age ranging from 18 years old and above. The reason why these sites are there in the internet it is because there are many people desiring for them. Therefore, this only signifies that the move to install pornographic sites with the internet is to gratify needs for sexual arousal which makes it a good business over the World Wide Web. Specific issues and even researches are increasing especially on how internet negatively affects the society’s morality (Wood and Smith 107). These studies point out that internet influences the society. This is the very point of magic bullet theory. Many young people are introduced early to sex due to various illicit sites showing the actual sexual contact among humans. This promotes various impacts on them including having an actual sex even at younger age, because there are various psychological and social factors involved in here. This is indeed true, but if everything has to be traced from the very beginning, it is the human who designed the internet and influenced it the way it is working at contemporary time. This again boils down to the fact that uses and gratification theory has very important implication on the recent usage and structure of the internet realm prior to the various positive and negative impacts. Listening to music and watching movies Uses and gratification theory Another important activity that I am also fond of is listening to music. This is an integral part of the media. It relaxes me when I come to listen to my favorite music. One of the reasons why music is broadcasted over the radio is to entertain people. Humans have various needs for entertainment and one of them is listening to favorite music. However, just like the television, other things can be substantially integrated with it, unconsciously. My point of listening to music is just to relax my mind from being exhausted of the entire day’s activities. This is my very desire and so I used my iPod to gratify this desire. Magic bullet theory Unfortunately, upon listening to music, some lyrics of it may strike me allowing me to pour out my emotion and even some sexual arousal due to some message of the song. I can say, it was not my desire to satisfy these needs in me, but in this case, I can say I was totally being influenced by the media. Watching movies My experience with watching movies has the same detailed impacts on me with listening to music. My primary need that I want to gratify in watching movies is entertainment. However, along the way, there are other needs of me which I did not plan to gratify were actually gratified. Conclusion: uses and gratifications theory versus magic bullet theory Based on the above situations discussed earlier, it is important to understand that the uses and gratification theory and magic bullet theory are closely interlinked. Out of the person’s desire to gratify his or her need through the media, there are substantial issues that are also experienced that will help prove that media can also influence the human being. Personally, based on my experience, I could say that things that can be pointed out using the magic bullet theory based on the context of the media are just effects of those things that can be explained by the uses and gratifications theory. It is true that there are needs that are out of the context of personal desire that will eventually be developed by the media. However, the very point of the institution of the media is to gratify the human desire that results to some important needs. The very point of this is the presence of television, internet, and music and movie productions. This eventually depicts the fact that the uses and gratifications theory could help trace the root cause of those things that can be elaborately explain using the magic bullet theory. References Kelly, Kathleen S. Effective fundraising management. Mahwah, NJ: Routledge, 1998. Larson, Charles U. Persuasion: Reception and Responsibility. 12th ed. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning, 2009. Marris, Paul, and Sue Thornham. Media studies: a reader. Michigan: Edinburgh University Press, 1996. Paolo, Sigismondi. The Digital Glocalization of Entertainment: New Paradigms in the 21st Century Global Mediascape. Angeles, CA: Springer, 2011. Popkin, R. H., and Avrum Stroll. Philosophy Made Simple. 3rd ed. Burlington, MA: Taylor & Francis, 1993. Wood, Andrew F., Matthew J. Smith. Online communication: linking technology, identity, and culture. Mahwah, NJ: Routledge, 2005. Read More