Blumer, And Facebook: Theory Uses And Gratification Theory

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Theory uses and gratification initiated by Blumer and Katz (1974, as cited in West & Turner, 2006) emphasizes on the users and their active role in choosing and using media that can satisfy one or more of their needs. Uses and gratification theory also explains that users are self-aware and are able to understand the reasons why they use media. This theory has been used not only to explain reasons why users use traditional media but also in the application of new media since the theory is still relevant to the new media application because of its origin in communication literature (Whiting & Williams, 2013). Shanahan and Morgan’s (1999, as cited in West & Turner, 2006) also suggested that although the technology changes, there is still underlying …show more content…

Many studies analyzed the motives of using Facebook by theory uses and gratification. One of them is the use of social media Facebook for news consumption for their cognitive need (Mesole, F. 2014). Papacharissi, et al. (2011), found that the main factor of Facebook usage is for information sharing followed by relaxing entertainment, follow new trend, companionship, escape, and social interaction. Another research conducted by Park, Kee & Valenzuela (2009), found out that the use of Facebook is for information seeking, socializing, and for entertainment. Moreover, Articolo (2008) also founded that Facebook usage are for interacting with people, express their identity, and for news purpose in order to stay updated of daily news. Based on many previous studies that related with theory uses and gratification, it can be seen that one of the purpose in using Facebook is for information seeking as it is supported by Pew Research Center study (2016) which revealed that Facebook usage for news is significantly increasing from 47 percent in 2013 to 66 percent in 2016. Therefore, this research is related with uses and gratification theory as users have the power to decide and filter whether the news shared by news portal merdeka.com is accordance with their needs or …show more content…

Therefore, this research applied AIDA marketing model to analyze the successful of its marketing activity on Facebook in increasing reading interest. AIDA model (Boone & Kurtz, 2013) stands for attention, interest, desire and action. First, it is suggested that any publication or promotional message must be able to gain the attention of audiences. If this step is not successful, then the next stage will become useless. The second stage is interest, after getting the attention of audiences, publication should be able to make audiences interested in finding out more about the publication. Third stage is desire, where publication should arouse desire, which convert the audience’s interest into a strong desire or strong motivation to do the action, and last is action, where audiences are finally making a final decision to know more about the publication or finally elicit an

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