Uses and Gratitfications Theory

The Uses and Gratitfications theory has an audience centered approach, the theory is centred around the audience by seeing what they do with media rather than seeing what media does to the consumer. This allows the audience to take an active role in finding out what media is and means in their own lives. The theory makes the audience responsible for choosing the type of media that meets their needs, for example if a consumer enjoys pop music they wouldn't buy a heavy metal magazine, they can determine the genre of the magazine by the image of a celebrity, colours, fonts and text size on the cover. This suggests that people use the media to aim at a specific satisfaction (gratifications).This shows me how effective the front cover of a magazine is to the audience and will help me design and create my music magazine.