GRATIFICATIONS SOUGHT AND MEDIA EXPOSURE An Expectancy Value Model

Abstract

The results of this investigation of television news support an expectancy value conceptualization that gratifications sought from a media object are a function of a person's beliefs that the object possesses certain attributes mediated by the subjective evaluations of these attributes. The findings parallel those in the expectancy value literature in that the addition of attribute importance to the model adds little to its predictive power. The data also support a prediction (derived from Fishbein's theory) that a belief x evaluation index will have an indirect impact (through gratifications sought) on media exposure. Implications for a uses and gratifications theory of media consumption are discussed.