Taylor Swift

Blumler and Katz’s Uses and Gratifications Theory states that audiences are active in their media consumption and we choose media to fulfil one or more of the following: Personal Identity, Information/ Education, Entertainment and/or Social Interaction.
Can you match up the definitions with the uses?

Use

Definition

  • Personal Identity
  • Information/Education
  • Entertainment
  • Social Interaction
  • Seeing the person as someone to identify with, a role model, someone with similar values as your own or someone to aspire to be like.
  • A way to acquire more information about a topic, a way to seek knowledge or understand something more.
  • Media to be enjoyed, maybe as escapism, allowing you to forget about your worries or the mundanity of your own life for a short time.
  • Providing a source of conversation between people, allowing people to socialise whilst discussing a media text.

When browsing Taylor Swift’s website, which of the ‘Uses and Gratifications’ above do you think the site fulfils? Might different people gain different gratifications? Why?

http://www.taylorswift.com/