ABSTRACT
SINCE the publication of Blumler and Katz’s (1974) landmark volume, The Uses of Mass Communication, research into the uses audience members make of the mass media, the gratifications derived from media consumption, and their antecedents and consequences has continued at an accelerating pace. Ten years ago critics argued with some success that such research was basically “atheoretical.” Today, such an argument would be more difficult to defend. In fact, an examination of the research agenda reveals that the last decade has been a period of rather vigorous theoretical growth for the uses and gratifications approach. This growth was heralded by Blumler and Katz’s (1974, p. 13) observation that “the uses and gratifications approach is well and truly launched on a third major phase of its development: a sort of coming of age.” This third phase, they said, is concentrated on attempts to provide explanations of the ways in which audience motives, expectations, and media behaviors are interconnected. In other words, Blumler and Katz felt that after lengthy periods in which researchers concentrated mainly on description and measurement of audience uses and motives, the emphasis had shifted in the 1970s to theory development.
