Effects Research and Uses of Gratification

Effects Research
Effects research is the idea that audiences can differ depending on what type of person they are, or how they are at that moment in time, these perceptions are made by the effects researchers. An audience member is seen to be either Passive, Active or the same. A passive member of the audience is someone who is not really thinking but infact they are just there and seem as though they are involved. An Active member of the audience is therefore the opposite- someone who is highly involved and participating. Effects researchers presumed that all audiences are the same and that they all would have the same response to a media text no matter what their background who what they have seen previously. However this was challenged by researchers such as 'Blumler and Katz (1974)' who believed that audiences do not do what the media wants, but infact the audience decide what they want to do with the Media- uses and gratifications.

Uses and Gratifications