A Social Cognitive Theory of Internet Uses and Gratifications: Toward a New Model of Media Attendance

Recent research explaining Internet usage has both extended and challenged the uses and gratifications approach to understanding media attendance by discovering "new" gratifications and introducing powerful new explanatory variables. The present research integrates these developments into a theory of media attendance within the framework of Bandura's (1 986) Social Cognitive Theory. Respondents from 2 Midwestern states were recruited by mail to complete an online questionnaire. Structural equation modeling techniques were used to test a.new model of media attendance in which active consideration of Internet uses and gratifications, moderated by Internet self-efficacy, joins habitual behavior and deficient self-regulation as determinants of media behavior. The model explained 42% of the variance in Internet usage. ,     

One Click,Many Meanings: Interpreting Paralinguistic Digital Affordances in Social Media

In this study we conceptualize cues in social media that require a single click (e.g., Likes, Favorites) as paralinguistic digital affordances (PDAs). Why do people use PDAs and how do they interpret them when they are the recipient? Through focus groups (N = 25) and interviews (N = 26) we address these research questions within a uses and gratifications framework. Using adaptive structuration theory as a lens for analysis, we examine both faithful and ironic uses of PDAs, finding they contribute more than phatic communication and may indicate just as much about the relationship between sender and receiver as they do content.     

Why We Share: A Uses and Gratifications Approach to Privacy Regulation in Social Media Use

The contradiction between the stated preferences of social media users toward privacy and actual privacy behaviors has suggested a willingness to trade privacy regulation for social goals. This study employs data from a survey of 361 social media users, which collected data on privacy attitudes, online privacy strategies and behaviors, and the uses and gratifications that social media experiences bring. Using canonical correlation, it examines in detail how underlying dimensions of privacy concern relate to specific contexts of social media use, and how these contexts relate to various domains of privacy-protecting behaviors. In addition, this research identifies how specific areas of privacy concern relate to levels of privacy regulation, offering new insight into the privacy paradox. In doing so, this study lends greater nuance to how the dynamic of privacy and sociality is understood and enacted by users, and how privacy management and the motivations underlying media use intersect.     

Podcasts and Productivity: A Qualitative Uses and Gratifications Study

Through analysis of five focus groups with people who “usually (more often than not) listened to at least one podcast episode a week” in the last two months, this uses and gratifications (U&G) study uncovers several prominent themes among podcast listener experiences. In an effort to integrate old and new media use typologies within U&G research, our results are presented in two parts: emerging typologies and expansions of existing typologies. The emerging section includes reasons for podcast displacement of other media, customizable experiences, and multitasking (which involves both temptation bundling and feeding the brain). The expansion builds on the existing typologies of companionship and interaction by analyzing avenues for parasocial relationship formation and identifying social opportunities as well as social frustrations surrounding podcasts. We ultimately conclude that podcasts offer an endless supply of engaging content that travels with listeners, allowing them to be “productive” in various physical and mind-expanding ways. The enjoyment is facilitated in part by forging connections with hosts and other listeners.     

MySpace Politics: Uses and Gratifications of Befriending Candidates

This study examines the uses and gratifications (U&G) of accessing political candidate profiles on social network Web sites. An online survey of visitors to the MySpace profiles of 2008 primary candidates revealed that voters are drawn to this source of political information mainly by the desire for social interaction with other like-minded supporters, followed by information-seeking, and entertainment. While information seeking and entertainment are common U&G of consuming online political content, they were weaker factors compared to the social interaction factor that seems to distinguish MySpace, possibly SNSs in general, from other online sources of political content.     

The Desire for Fame: An Extension of Uses and Gratifications Theory

Social network sites (SNSs) enable users to self-disclose to broad and anonymous audiences. Drawing on social cognitive theory (SCT) and the uses and gratifications (U&G) approach, this study investigates how reality television (RTV) cultivates desire for fame in its audience, which is operationalized as a human desire motivating nondirected self-disclosure (NDSD) online, a technique seeking fame. Results from an online survey (N = 221) show that whether watching RTV with friends interacted with time spent viewing RTV to affect desire for fame, which in turn affected the use of SNSs to pursue fame. In addition, exhibitionism, a motive of SNS use for the purpose of fame, fully mediated the relationship between desire for fame and NDSD. These results have implications for refining U&G and new media research.     

Uses and Grats 2.0: New Gratifications for New Media

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.     

Applying an Integrative Technology Adoption Paradigm to Health App Adoption and Use

The present study employs an audience-centered approach to examine motivations for mobile fitness app use. We explicate and test an Integrated Technology Adoption model, which incorporates perspectives on competition, self-esteem, self-efficacy, and audience uses and gratifications. An online survey of 469 respondents reveals that app adoption intentions were predicted by internal competition orientations and gratifications, exercise self-efficacy, social utility motives, and attitudes toward the app. External competition decreased behavioral intentions related to app use. Study results thus provide support for an integrative model linking social cognitive factors with a new set of mobile app uses and gratifications.     

Social and Technological Motivations for Online Photo Sharing

The popularity of social media sites for posting pictures has given rise to a new form of mediated communication: online photo sharing. This article explores motivations for sharing photos online, using the 2-step procedure common in Uses and Gratifications research. Focus groups revealed 42 motivations which were rated in importance by survey respondents (N = 460). Factor analysis revealed 4 classes of gratifications: seeking and showcasing experiences, technological affordances, social connection, and reaching out. These results suggest that photo sharing is driven by social needs and facilitated by interface features, with important implications for theories of technology and user psychology.     

Social Structure,Media System,and Audiences in China: Testing the Uses and Dependency Model

Much has been written about the structure and processes of China's mass media changes before and after the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping initiated the economic reform and open-door policies in the late 1970s. Many of them focused on the commercialization, depoliticalization, and internationalization of Chinese media as a result of the market economy and external openness. Little known, however, is how the audiences get caught up in the interplay between the fast changing social structure and the evolving media system in China. Using the uses and dependency model as a framework, this study seeks to determine the effects of the media transformation on the audiences and their media use in the new environment. In this article we argue that the uses and dependency perspective best helps explain why Chinese readers prefer a particular kind of news and why the Party organs are losing ground to other more market-oriented media.     

Understanding Electronic Media Audiences: The Pioneering Research of Alan M. Rubin

One can hardly be considered knowledgeable of uses and gratifications theory without being familiar with the work of Alan M. Rubin. His advancement of our knowledge about the centrality of the individual in the media uses and effects relationship has inspired numerous scholars to add to the body of knowledge guided by uses and gratifications research. The breadth of Rubin's work in this regard is extraordinary, but his devotion to clarifying central concepts of uses and gratifications in his audience-centered research should also be recognized. Rubin's pioneering studies in uses and gratifications remain as benchmarks for scholars seeking to understand electronic media and how engaged audiences relate to media content.     

A Uses and Gratifications Approach to Exploring Antecedents to Facebook Dependency

The purpose of this study was to explore the variables that impact participants’ dependency upon Facebook to achieve communication goals from a uses and gratifications (U&G) perspective. In support of U&G, all five Facebook motives played an important role in dependency outcomes. Participants motivated by virtual community, or meeting new people online, were most dependent on the medium. Big 5 personality traits, self-esteem, and social cohesion were examined and partially supported a social compensation perspective. Results are discussed in light of existing U&G and dependency research with respect to functional alternatives. Limitations and directions for future research are also offered.     

Toward an etiology of media use motivations: the role of temperament in media use

Despite the potential of the uses and gratifications paradigm to explain the etiology of media uses and effects, most research to date has ignored the issue of etiology and has focused on creating motivation typologies. Recent advances in bio-behavioral research provide a new way to address the question of etiology. A survey of 285 adults showed that the biologically rooted individual difference behavior variable of temperament was a consistent and moderately strong causal factor in forming television use motivations. Distinct patterns of relationships between temperament and all television use gratifications were found, supporting the uses and gratifications paradigm. Particularly potent predictors of television use motivations were negative mood, low task orientation, and behavioral rigidity. These results point out the importance of future bio-behavioral etiological media uses and effects research.     

Use and Gratifications of Singing Competition Reality Shows: Linking Narcissism and Gratifications Sought with the Multimedia Viewing of Chinese Audiences

Singing competition reality shows have gradually come to dominate the mainland Chinese TV program market. This study explores the gratifications that Chinese audiences seek from watching such shows. An analysis first reveals that the most salient gratifications sought are ambition, suspense, social interaction, and high production quality. Second, narcissism significantly enhances the gratifications that audiences seek in viewing such shows. Third, individuals’ preferences in terms of their ambitions and quality of productions are significantly associated with their choice of media platforms. Finally, social interaction gratification sought and a preference for high-production quality were found to be highly related to Chinese audiences’ viewing and postviewing activities. We found support for these propositions in data collected from a probability sample of 559 respondents. The implications of the findings are discussed.     

News Audiences Revisited: Theorizing the Link Between Audience Motivations and News Consumption

With a plethora of news outlets today, audiences have more choices than ever. Yet, academic and professional understanding of news audiences from a uses and gratifications perspective remains limited. Using a national survey (N = 1143), this study uncovers distinct news consumption patterns across 4 types of motivations, and predicts media uses across 30 sources with noticeably higher explanatory power as compared to previous uses and gratifications studies, answering the question: Who is using what type of news, and why?     

使用与满足视角下社交网络用户行为研究综述:基于国外54篇实证研究文献的内容分析

[目的/意义]基于使用与满足这一视角,对国外社交网络用户行为相关的文献进行系统的梳理与分析,以期对国内相关研究提供参考。[方法/过程]采用内容分析方法,遵循Webster和Watson的两阶段综述方法,共获取社交网络用户行为研究相关的实证类文献54篇;逐一阅读与分析这些文献,主要关注与分析每篇文献所应用的研究主题、理论基础、因变量、自变量与实证结果。[结果/结论]研究发现：已有研究通常整合多种理论来构建实证模型;认知需求、个人整合需求以及社会整合需求相关的影响因素被学者关注得最多;与此同时,情感需求与压力释放需求相关的影响因素也逐渐受到关注。后续研究需要关注不同层面的需求满足对社交网络用户行为产生的不同影响、不同代际的用户群体使用社交网络的行为以及社交网络沉迷行为这些日益浮现的重要议题。     

Identity on Social Networks as a Cue: Identity,Retweets, and Credibility

The current study investigates how social media affordances influence individuals’ source credibility perceptions in the presence of risk information, specifically examining how bandwagon heuristics interact with different identity heuristics at the individual level. The MAIN model and warranting theory serve as the theoretical framework to examine the effects of bandwagon cues and identity cues embedded in retweets and users’ profile pages for health and risk online information processing. A posttest-only experiment with a self-report questionnaire was administered to participants. Results indicate that different online heuristic cues impact the judgments of competence, goodwill, and trustworthiness. Authority cues strongly influenced source credibility perceptions. A reverse-bandwagon effect was observed in influencing source credibility judgments.     

The Role of Motivation and Media Involvement in Explaining Internet Dependency

Links among demographics, motivation for using the Internet, cognitive and affective involvement, and Internet dependency were investigated. By integrating uses and gratifications theory and media dependency research, motivation was found to play a more important antecedent role in explaining Internet dependency than demographics, and cognitive and affective involvement mediated the relationship between motivation and Internet dependency. This finding supported the uses and gratifications argument that certain factors intervene in the media uses and effects process between motivation to communicate and outcomes of communication behavior such as media use.     

The Uses and Gratifications of Media Migration: Investigating the Activities,Motivations, and Predictors of Migration Behaviors Originating in Entertainment Television

Increasingly, media consumers follow entertainment across media; migrating from one medium to the next seeking to fulfill different needs. Using survey methods (N = 444), this exploratory research examines the underlying elements of media migration by studying the uses and gratifications of migration behavior. Specifically, findings of this survey identify migration activities, motivations, and predictors of migration. Results suggest that several of the top migration activities are strongly tied to Internet use. Findings indicate that media migration is motivated by different needs, including entertainment, escape, enlightenment, and more content-congruent exposure. Finally, amidst various predictors, the need for content-congruent exposure emerged as a strong predictor of migration.     

Interpersonal Goals and Political Uses of Facebook

Many have noted the immense potential of social media as a catalyst for political engagement. While we know a great deal about the people who use social media for politics, and even why they do it, we know very little about when, or under what conditions, political uses of social media actually occur. In this article I extend interpersonal goals theory to examine when political social media use happens. Results suggest that, above and beyond cognitive political engagement, interpersonal goals contribute significantly in explaining political behaviors on Facebook. I find that political posts entail greater affective and interaction-related risks than following political pages or updating one’s profile, while “liking” political posts affords users a low-cost/low-reward strategy for managing interactions. As such, this study provides evidence that political expression on Facebook takes several distinct forms.