Blumler and Katz's uses and gratification theory is an approach to understanding why and how people actively seek out specific media to satisfy specific needs. UGT is an audience centred approach to understanding mass communication.
Users and gratifications theory was an important shift in the study of how audiences interacted with texts and was developed by Blumler and Katz is 1974. Through a series of interviews with viewers, they identified four broad needs that were fulfilled by the viewers of television.
- Diversion - A form of escape or release from everyday pressures.
- Personal relationships - Companionship through identification with television characters and sociability through discussion about television with other people.
- Personal identity - The ability to compare one's own life with the characters and situations portrayed and explore individual problems and perspectives.
- Surveillance - Information about "what's going on in the world".
Other uses and gratifications research developed models about how viewers use quiz shows for four main gratifications:
- Self rating - See how well I do.
- Social interaction - Watching/sharing/competing with others.
- Excitement - To see who wins and what they win.
- Education - As a source of knowledge.
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