Media Use

In 1942, Frank Stanton, in collaboration with Lazarsfeld, published a group of books that investigated the way audiences use media and what they get from that use. Dennis McQuail found in 1987 that gratification is primary to the use of media (Baran; 1995). This can be linked to the idea that in order to relieve the discomfort caused by viewing media that consistently disagree with our own ideology, we will seek media that send messages that agree with us, making them easier to view. There is evidence to show that as a society we select our media just as we do our friends: We want to be surrounded by those who are like us and we want to be given messages that don’t offend our sensibilities.