ABSTRACT
Everyday questions like “has anything important happened in the world?,” “what’s on TV tonight?,” or “what’s the weather going to be tomorrow?” can initiate a distinct and frequently observable kind of media use: informational and educational message selections, performed with the intention to monitor the environment, to learn and to understand, to form opinions, or to find guidance regarding upcoming events and decisions. Informational utility approaches are among the few theoretical frameworks that were specifically developed to explain such informational-educational media choices. The basic idea was formulated decades ago: “It seems likely that the greater the perceived utility of the information the greater will be the subject’s desire to be exposed to it” (Freedman & Sears, 1965, p. 81). Two informational utility models have been proposed and will be portrayed later in this chapter: the classic informational utility framework by Atkin (1973) and the recent model by Knobloch-Westerwick and colleagues (e.g., 2005a and b, 2002). Their specific assumptions, limitations, and empirical outcomes will be discussed with the hope that this chapter will have a preferably high informational utility for the reader, herewith defined as anti cipated or experienced potential of media offerings to provide comprehension and guidance with respect to relevant past, current, and future events or developments.
