What is the Uses and Gratification Theory

What is the "Uses and Gratification Theory?

The Uses and Gratification Theory deals with the effect of people with the media. The Gratification theory describes mass communication to its audience, it does this by providing the audience with information that it wants. The theory is very audience centred. The theory adopts specific media, for example magazines, to give the audience what is wants.

Example of the gratification theory

Using the Gratification theory on this image, that shows that the artist Tinie Tempah, shows that he means business in the way that he is standing, this shows the audience/reader of the magazine that he knows what he is doing and should be respected as a result. For the target audience of this specific edition of the magazine it is aimed at rap/pop audiences, as a result of this the audience is looking for an image in which they would want to see a specific image. As a result of this due to rap/pop being serious and gives usually has a meaning about them deep within the song about some of the worlds problems, this image is a perfect fit to this as Tinie Tempah has a straight face showing that the subject at matter is a laughing or a fun occasion, possibly showing that he wants to prove a point and possibly put some light on a area of the world. 

Research- Magazine Front Cover 3

Research- Magazine Front Cover 2

Research- Magazine Front Cover 1

The magazine is mainly focused on the 3 different pictures of Brandon from The Killers.

This is shown by the picture intruding the text above the actually picture. This is so that the reader can physically see what is one of the main parts of the magazine. Also the magazine company NME has also made the title larger and a rhetorical question to intrigue the reader to read on and buy the magazine as a result. To add to this they have a brief quote on what the artist has said to persuade the reader more.

The editor has created a ripped effect between the 3 pictures to show the fact that the artist is in a current "crisis" to give the effect that he is broken and its going to take a while for him to be fixed. This is another way in which to split up the pictures than just putting a simple border around them. 

The NME title looks like its been indented as the white border around it gives this effect that it stands out to show that it is better than the magazines it is surrounded by in the shop. in addition to this magazine uses yellow writing on a black background to make it stick out and advertise what is inside that current issue to create a way in which to advertise what is inside the magazine in the current issue.

Preliminary exercise- Evaluation Task

Evaluation

Points of Success

Points for success for my preliminary task are that I was able to create a simple magazine cover and a mock up of a contents page for the first time, due to me hardly using this software before it is a success as I was able to learn the basics of two pieces of software and create something as a result.

Areas for Improvement

Areas for improvement for my preliminary task are things as such as creating a better house style for the  task and making it look more like a magazine rather than a information leflet with a contents page. Also in addition to this the positioning on some pictures and text overlap and clash with colours, for future reference i should organise the place in which things should be placed in areas where they don't clash as a result.

What have I learned?

During this preliminary task I have learned how to use the basics of Photoshop and InDesign. Due to this when I start to do my final product for the magazine I will have a better understanding of what i will need to do to be able to create a better house style that looks more professional as a result.

Have I met the criteria for the brief?

I feel that i have met the criteria for the brief as i placed a picture on the front cover of the magazine and created text for around as news for the school magazine. In addition to this I have created a mock up of the contents planning the way I would have placed different things such as the title pictures and information on that page.