Audience uses and Gratifications: An Expectancy Model

Abstract

Investigations as to why people attend to mass communications have generally not dealt with one of the assumed basic concepts of uses and gratifications research, namely, expectations about gratification. Nor have studies i n the area shown much concern for the question of whether gratifications sought from exposure to media are subsequently obtained; and if so, or if not, how this affects later expectations and patterns of exposure. This article describes a cognitive theory of motivation, expectancy-value theory. It then derives an expectancy model of media exposure in the framework of uses and gratifications research-a model which utilizes expectancy-value measures of audience gratifications in order to be able to predict subsequent levels of exposure to media. The model is illustrated by a small set of three-time panel data, the results of which support the view that the model has predictive validity. The article concludes that expectancy-value theory holds promise for extending uses and gratifications research beyond studies of the “charting and profiling” of reasons for attending to the media.