Uses and Grats 2.0: New Gratifications for New Media

Abstract

This article responds to recent calls for conceptual and methodological refinement, issued by uses-and-gratifications scholars (Rubin, 2009 Rubin, A. M. 2009. “The uses-and-gratifications perspective on media effects.”. In Media effects: Advances in theory and research , 3rd ed. Edited by: Bryant, J. and Oliver, M. B. 165–184. New York, NY: Routledge.. [Google Scholar]; Ruggiero, 2000 Ruggiero, T. E. 2000. Uses and gratifications theory in the 21st century. Mass Communication & Society, 3: 3–37. doi: 10.1207/S15327825MCS0301_02[Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]), for studying emergent media. Noting that studies on the uses of the Internet have generated a list of gratifications that are remarkably similar to those obtained from older media, it identifies two measurement artifacts—(1) measures designed for older media are used to capture gratifications from newer media; and (2) gratifications are conceptualized and operationalized too broadly (e.g., information-seeking), thus missing the nuanced gratifications obtained from newer media. It challenges the notion that all gratifications are borne out of innate needs, and proposes that affordances of media technology can shape user needs, giving rise to new and distinctive gratifications. A sample of new gratifications and potential measures for those are provided.