Uses And Gratification Theory: Literature Review And Critical Theory

CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
2.1 INTRODUCTION: Newspaper firms have started to search for online delivery channels so as to retain the young readers. As a result, they have transferred a considerable amount of their delivery channels from print to online format. Most of the media firms have started to implement a 360-degree strategy that integrates content decisions “shaped by the potential to generate consumer value and returns through multiple platforms of expression of that content via a number of distribution outlets” (Doyle, 2010). In this modern age, people obtain information by means of the Internet. In a recent research, it is identified that next to television, people use internet to get to know the

The theory explains “how individuals use mass communication to gratify their needs” (Burgeon, Hunsaker and Dawson, 1994, cited in Udende and Azeez, 2010, p. 34). The theory holds that “people influence the effects that mass media have on them” (Anaeto et al, 2008 cited in Edegoh, Asemah and Nwammuo, 2013, p. 23). The assumption of the theory is that people are not just passive receivers of media messages; rather, they actively influence the message effects. Media audience selectively choose, attend to, perceive and retain media offerings on the basis of their needs, beliefs, etc., thus, “there are as many reasons for using the media as there are media users” (Anaeto et al, 2008, p. 71). Uses and Gratification theory has also been used in models that attempt to identify how people choose among media. A good example is Lacy (2000), who suggested that five communication needs (surveillance, diversion, socio-cultural, interaction, decision making and self-understanding) combine with other variables like quantity of news and media featured such as cost to determine how much time people will spend with various