Internet Audiences - Key Theorists: Denis McQuail

Key Theroists: Denis McQuail

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Denis Mc Quail has taught at the University of Southampton and University of Leeds in England. At present, he is a professor of sociology and mass communication at the University of Amsterdam in Netherlands. Denis Mc Quail has contributed much of his time writing a number of books on theories and ideology of media influences and effects. The questions most insistently asked of social research on mass communication, and perhaps least clearly answered, have to do with the effects and social influence of the different mass media. The amount of attention given to each media and amount of resources invested in mass media production and distribution leaves this area as an important criterion for research. Denis Mc Quail provides an overview in diverse array of important media situation and discussing on media audience.

Internet as a new media, changes the role of the audience. The balance of audience activity shifts from “reception to searching, consulting and interacting� (Mc Quail, 2000: 120). Internet features three main ideas as it is interactivity, demassified nature and breaking the barrier of space and time. Audience are able to access the Internet from almost everywhere, seeking information from sources within and outside geographic barriers. The audience are not restricted to local content anymore, as the degree of freedom that is available. Despite the differences, “the new media are being used and exploited in much as the same way the old media for selling, advertising, propaganda and persuasion� (Mc Quail, 2000: 124).

Media research on what the audience use the Internet and the gratification they receive. The choices which people make are motivated by the desire to satisfy a range of needs. Hence the uses and gratifications approach is concerned to identify how people use the media to gratify their needs.

McQuail (2000) summarised uses and gratifications theory into four areas.

1. The first is ‘information’, where we use the media to educate us in certain areas, such as learning more about the world, seeking advice on practical matters, or fulfilling our curiosity.
2. The second factor is ‘personal identity’, where we may watch television to associate an actor’s character with our own. For example in the comedy ‘Friends’ all the actors have different personalities, we as the audience imagines or desires that we were them or resembling them.
3. The third usage of media is ‘integration and social interaction’, and refers to gaining insight into the situations of other people, in order to achieve a sense of belonging. For example, when watching a movie, we may get very emotional because we experience a sense of connection to the movie, and experience symptoms like crying, or covering our eyes. Television also facilitates us in our personal relationship with friends as we are able to relate and discuss details of media texts that we like in common with our friends.
4. The fourth usage of the media identified by McQuail is ‘entertainment’, that is, using media for purposes of obtaining pleasure and enjoyment, or escapism. For example when we watch TV shows or movies we end up going into a new world of fantasy, diverting our attention from our problems, wasting time when we are free and even sometimes acquiring sexual arousal or emotional release.

There are criticism to this approach, as not all media is related to the pursuit of gratification and it has been taken for granted that audience accept the content of the media. James Lull claims the problem is “because the uses and gratifications perspective assumes that people willingly engage the mass media and benefit from the experience, it is often associated with the highly criticized notion that mass media function positively for society.� (Lull, 2002: 111)

Reference

Lull, James. (2000). “Media, Communication, Culture�, Blackwell Publishers Ltd. ISBN 0231120737.

Mc Quail, Denis. "Photo", retrieved 24 October, 2004 from http://sg.search.yahoo.com/search/images?p=denis+mcquail&ei=UTF-8&fr=fp-tab-img-t&fl=0&x=wrt.

Mc Quail, Denis. (2000), “Mc Quail’s Mass Communication Theory�, SAGE Publication Ltd. ISBN 0761965467.

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Kelvin Khoo 22:26, 25 Oct 2004 (EST)