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Abstract
This article responds to recent calls for conceptual and methodological refinement, issued by uses-and-gratifications scholars (CitationRubin, 2009; CitationRuggiero, 2000), 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.
Notes
The first author was supported in this research by the U. S. National Science Foundation (NSF) via Standard Grant No. IIS-0916944 and by the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation under the WCU (World Class University) program funded through the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, S. Korea (Grant No. R31-2008-000-10062-0) and awarded to the Department of Interaction Science, Sungkyunkwan University, Korea (where he served as visiting professor).