The Uses and
Gratifications Theory by Blumer and Katz is the theory that media users play
the active role in choosing and using the media. It also states that media
users seek what fulfils their needs. There are four basic needs: Diversion
(escape everyday life/relax), Personal Relationships (fulfil need for
companionship), Personal Identity (find out about ourselves) and Surveillance (find
out about what is going on around us).
Q’s Contents page will be
used by many teenagers and young adults to find out about music and perhaps
extend their passion of music and certain artists. It does this by including
brief information on the magazines content and so showing the readers what and
how to find certain articles in the magazine.
In Q’s Contents page,
Diversion is used. This is mainly through the large central image and the small
graphic feature. These allow the reader to escape reality as they show a band
and artist who may be many people’s heroes/idol. This allows them to retreat
real life as they can feel they have a relationship with the musicians.
The need to have a
personal relationship is fulfilled, again by the images, but also by the
contents list. This is because the list includes some brief information on
certain artists “Jeremy Vine is not afraid of Robert Mugabe”. This allows the
readers to gain knowledge on the artists and so feel as though they have a
relationship with them.
Readers can ‘discover
themselves’ (personal identity) from Q’s contents page. This is by the graphic
feature, central image, pull quotes and contents list giving the reader
information on certain artists and so perhaps a certain genre(s). This means
the reader is able to decide what music they prefer and so find something out
about themselves.
And finally, the purpose
of a contents page is to provide information and navigation about the magazine.
This means it allows the reader to gain some brief knowledge of what’s going on
around them, therefore fulfilling the need of Surveillance.
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