3. Literature Review
Through research, I have discovered many theorists and concepts that relate to my project.
The most relevant theories to my topic so far would be Blumler and Katz (1974) as they state that 'Far from being duped by the media, this 'audience' is represented as made up of individuals free to reject, use or play with them. The needs to be gratified include those for diversion and escapism, for information, for comparing relationships and lifestyle of characters with one's own or for sexual stimulation.' this suggests that audiences watch certain genres to satisfy their needs, for example, people may watch a significant amount of TV or Netflix to escape from everyday life, this being a type of diversion, which the theorists categorise. This will be relevant to why my audience watches Netflix and TV and may reveal the reasons in which they prefer a certain service. Denis McQuail (1987) then gave a more detailed breakdown of the uses and gratification theory by placing these into more defined categories. He breaks these down into information, learning, personal identity, integration, and social interaction and entertainment, these defining the audience's relationships with the desired text and the reason to why they want to satisfy certain needs.
Maslow (1943) initially stated that individuals must satisfy lower level deficit needs before progressing on to meet higher level growth needs. However, he later clarified that satisfaction of a needs is not an “all-or-none” phenomenon, admitting that his earlier statements may have given “the false impression that a need must be satisfied 100 percent before the next need emerges” (1987, p. 69). This relating from the early theories of Blumler and Katz and McQuail and advancing to suggest that the power lies with the individual who will select the media texts that best suit their needs.
Raymond Williams certainly applies with TV. He states that 'the characteristic experience of television, especially in commercially funded systems, keen to keep fingers off channel buttons, to keep 'eyeballs' on their channel. Indeed the main role of - TV has been described, by both academics and advertisers, as 'selling the audiences to advertisers' - though 'selling audience attention' would be more accurate'. This is true in conjunction with TV as many people immerse themselves into technology, becoming so invested that commercially funded systems are definitely selling the audience to the advertisers.
The hypodermic model certainly has relevancy here due to the media acting like a syringe injecting the single mass audience by power. This creates addiction as once someone is injected with something they become addicted, relating to Netflix becoming an addictive streaming service and platform in general.
References
Blumler, Jay, Katz, Elihu (1974) The Uses of Mass Communication, California; Sage.
McQuail, Denis (1987): Mass Communication Theory: An Introduction (2nd edn.). London: Sage
Maslow (1943), Saul McLeod, 2018, Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html
Morley, David (1992) Television, Audience and Cultural Studies, London: Routledge.
Williams, Raymond (1974) Television: Technology and Cultural Form, London: Fontana; 2nd edn 1990.
The most relevant theories to my topic so far would be Blumler and Katz (1974) as they state that 'Far from being duped by the media, this 'audience' is represented as made up of individuals free to reject, use or play with them. The needs to be gratified include those for diversion and escapism, for information, for comparing relationships and lifestyle of characters with one's own or for sexual stimulation.' this suggests that audiences watch certain genres to satisfy their needs, for example, people may watch a significant amount of TV or Netflix to escape from everyday life, this being a type of diversion, which the theorists categorise. This will be relevant to why my audience watches Netflix and TV and may reveal the reasons in which they prefer a certain service. Denis McQuail (1987) then gave a more detailed breakdown of the uses and gratification theory by placing these into more defined categories. He breaks these down into information, learning, personal identity, integration, and social interaction and entertainment, these defining the audience's relationships with the desired text and the reason to why they want to satisfy certain needs.
Maslow (1943) initially stated that individuals must satisfy lower level deficit needs before progressing on to meet higher level growth needs. However, he later clarified that satisfaction of a needs is not an “all-or-none” phenomenon, admitting that his earlier statements may have given “the false impression that a need must be satisfied 100 percent before the next need emerges” (1987, p. 69). This relating from the early theories of Blumler and Katz and McQuail and advancing to suggest that the power lies with the individual who will select the media texts that best suit their needs.
Another theorist I feel is relevant to my project is Morley (1992), he stated that 'personality types in the audience gave rise to certain needs, some of which are directed to the mass media for satisfaction' this signifying that platforms know exactly what they are doing by targeting the certain needs wanted by their audiences, thus creating more activity on their platforms.
Raymond Williams certainly applies with TV. He states that 'the characteristic experience of television, especially in commercially funded systems, keen to keep fingers off channel buttons, to keep 'eyeballs' on their channel. Indeed the main role of - TV has been described, by both academics and advertisers, as 'selling the audiences to advertisers' - though 'selling audience attention' would be more accurate'. This is true in conjunction with TV as many people immerse themselves into technology, becoming so invested that commercially funded systems are definitely selling the audience to the advertisers.
The hypodermic model certainly has relevancy here due to the media acting like a syringe injecting the single mass audience by power. This creates addiction as once someone is injected with something they become addicted, relating to Netflix becoming an addictive streaming service and platform in general.
References
Blumler, Jay, Katz, Elihu (1974) The Uses of Mass Communication, California; Sage.
McQuail, Denis (1987): Mass Communication Theory: An Introduction (2nd edn.). London: Sage
Maslow (1943), Saul McLeod, 2018, Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html
Morley, David (1992) Television, Audience and Cultural Studies, London: Routledge.
Williams, Raymond (1974) Television: Technology and Cultural Form, London: Fontana; 2nd edn 1990.
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