Some mass communications scholars have contended that uses and gratifications is not a rigorous social science theory. In this article, I argue just the opposite, and any attempt to speculate on the future direction of mass communication theory must seriously include the uses and gratifications approach. In this article, I assert that the emergence of computer-mediated communication has revived the significance of uses and gratifications. In fact, uses and gratifications has always provided a cutting-edge theoretical approach in the initial stages of each new mass communications medium: newspapers, radio and television, and now the Internet. Although scientists are likely to continue using traditional tools and typologies to answer questions about media use, we must also be prepared to expand our current theoretical models of uses and gratifications. Contemporary and future models must include concepts such as interactivity, demassification, hypertextuality, and asynchroneity. Researchers must also be willing to explore interpersonal and qualitative aspects of mediated communication in a more holistic methodology.

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Uses and Gratifications Theory in the 21st Century

4. UNHCR notes with concern that although the country acceded to the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol in 1999, incorporation of the 1951 Convention obligations into national legislation and normative acts has been slow and to date Kazakhstan has failed to comply with its obligation to give full effect to the Covenant in the domestic legal order, inter alia providing for effective judicial and other remedies for violations of these rights

United Nations High Commission for Refugees

This experiment examines interactivity and vividness in commercial web sites. We expected increased levels of interactivity and vividness would lead to more positive attitudes toward web sites, stronger feelings of telepresence, and greater attitude—behavior consistency. In addition, we expected increased levels of vividness to lead to the development of more enduring attitudes toward the site. Participants explored four web sites. Increases in interactivity and vividness were associated with increased feelings of telepresence. In addition, increases in vividness were associated with more positive and more enduring attitudes toward the web site. Implications for new media researchers and practitioners are discussed.

The Effects of Progressive Levels of Interactivity and Vividness in Web Marketing Sites

Users have adopted a wide range of digital technologies into their communication repertoire. It remains unclear why they adopt multiple forms of communication instead of substituting one medium for another. It also raises the question: What type of need does each of these media fulfill? In the present article, the authors conduct comparative work that examines the gratifications obtained from Facebook with those from instant messaging. This comparison between media allows one to draw conclusions about how different social media fulfill user needs. Data were collected from undergraduate students through a multimethod study based on 77 surveys and 21 interviews. A factor analysis of gratifications obtained from Facebook revealed six key dimensions: pastime, affection, fashion, share problems, sociability, and social information. Comparative analysis showed that Facebook is about having fun and knowing about the social activities occurring in one’s social network, whereas instant messaging is geared more tow...

https://terpconnect.umd.edu/~nan/738readings/Quan-Haase%20Young%202010%20uses%20gratifications%20social%20media.pdf

Uses and Gratifications of Social Media: A Comparison of Facebook and Instant Messaging:

Most perceptions of interactivity are that it is an inherently good thing, that it will change marketing and advertising as we know it. However, though there are obvious and intuitive advantages to interactivity, it may pose a disadvantage for marketing and advertising in some conditions. In this article, we explore the nature of interactivity and its underlying processes to determine the conditions in which interactivity may be both useful and detrimental in an advertising context. We first discuss the multidimensional nature of the interactivity construct as it has appeared in the literature. We then provide a concrete conceptualization and definition of interactivity that encompasses these various dimensions. We argue that inconsistencies between the definitions and operationalizations found in previous studies make it difficult to draw firm conclusions about the role of interactivity but that these inconsistencies can be at least partly explained by a focus on the different dimensions of inte...

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/4189237.pdf

What Is Interactivity and Is It Always Such a Good Thing? Implications of Definition, Person, and Situation for the Influence of Interactivity on Advertising Effectiveness

This study reexamined the concept of interactivity and proposed that interactivity be defined as the extent to which the communicator and the audience respond to each other's communication need. Interactivity was construed as consisting of five dimensions: 1) playfulness, 2) choice, 3) connectedness, 4) information collection, and 5) reciprocal communication. Web sites for products, services, and retail outlets appeared to differ significantly in terms of connectedness, information collection, and reciprocal communication.

Interactivity reexamined: A baseline analysis of early business web sites

This study examines the self-reported ethics of both current and future advertising practitioners, and compares their responses to four scenarios and 17 statements on advertising ethics. Stepwise discriminant analysis was used to determine the extent to which both groups applied the classical ethical theory of deontology to the scenarios and statements. Results indicate significant differences between both groups. For example, current advertising practitioners are significantly less likely than future practitioners to apply deontology to decision making. The implications of these results are discussed and suggestions for future research are outlined.

Advertising Ethics: Practitioner and Student Perspectives

Eight basic types of advertising were identified, based on the tasks they were expected to perform. These were: corporate; brand image; political; retail; public service; advocacy; direct response, and comparative advertising. Student subjects exposed to the different categories of advertisements provided a total of 4,485 statements about the kind of information they would expect to find in each type. Trained coders then classified these statements into several dimensions of information expectations associated with each of the eight different types of advertisements. Overall, three identifiable information expectation themes emerged: (1) expected information about products and services; (2) expected information about organizations or companies, and 3) expected puffery/hype. Puffery was expected to be found in all types of advertisements examined apart from comparative advertising. However, consumers appeared to perceive puffery as advertising information to be ignored.

Consumer Expectations of the Information Content in Advertising

The transmission of sexually transmitted diseases and their health consequences in sub-Saharan Africa indicate no sign of abating. For example, it has been estimated that if current HIV/AIDS infection trends continue, by 2010, life expectancy will be less than 40 years in eight African countries: Botswana, Ethiopia, Malawi, Namibia, Rwanda, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe (U.S. Department of State, 1999). (Kenya's estimate is 43.7 years.). Consequently, within nine months, at least two major international conferences sought to bring increasing attention to the scourge. The first was in September 12-16, 1999, when the Eleventh International Conference on AIDS and STDs in Africa was held in Lusaka, Zambia. Its theme, "Setting Priorities for HIV/AIDS in Africa," cast those diseases in paradoxical terms: Despite communication and health programs implemented over a decade in attempts to reduce their incidence in sub-Saharan Africa, the region faces a much higher incidence of the disease than at the start of this decade. In May 15-20, 2000, the World Health Organization held its annual conference in Geneva, this time pledging "to give new directions and a new energy to an expanded, revitalized response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic" (Brundtland, 2000). Health agencies in the region must, therefore, revisit their priorities and search for more effective strategies to halt the devastating scourge of a variety of diseases, the most devastating of which are HIV/AIDS. It was in tandem with those concerns that this study was undertaken to examine socio-cultural factors that underlie sexual practices and sexually transmitted diseases in sub-Saharan Africa. It also explores sources from which teenagers in Kenya get information on health or health-related problems and on contraceptives that they can use to prevent sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and pregnancy. This study is guided by four overarching realities: (a) the endemic nature of STDs, particularly heterosexually transmitted HIV/AIDS in Africa (Quinn, 1996); (b) the high rate of HIV/AIDS on the continent, as a consequence of the high rate of STDs (Green, 1994; "Improved STD Treatment," 1995; Rushing, 1995; U.S. Department of State, 1999); (c) the importance of controlling STDs in the fight against AIDS in developing countries (Grosskurth, Plummer, & Mabey, 1993; Rushing, 1995; Williams, 1992); and (d) the 60% rate of new HIV infections among 15- to 24-year-olds worldwide. A study conducted at Nairobi's Kenyatta National Hospital found, for example, that 23% of 15- to 19-year-old women who visited an antenatal clinic had STDs (Aggarwal & Matu, 1992). Similarly, U.S. women between the ages 15 and 19 have the highest incidence of gonorrhea and males of a similar age group the second-highest of any age group in the United States (Division of STD Prevention, 1999). Why Kenya and Its Adolescents? We focus on Kenya for three reasons. First, it is one of the world's youngest countries; 52% of its 30 million people are younger than 15. People between the ages of 10 and 19 comprise about 25% of its population and are the fastest-growing segment in the country (Center for the Study, 1995). Those patterns justify the focus of this study on teenagers. Second, the country's adolescent fertility rates are among the world's highest. Njau and Radeny (1995) note that Kenya's "high teenage sexual activity is reflected in the incidence of pregnancy, abortion, and STDs" (p. 2). One in five women aged 15 to 19 years has begun childbearing, either given birth or being pregnant with her first child. Seventeen percent had one child, and another 8.6% were pregnant, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Surveys of 1989 and 1990. Illinigumugabo, Njau, & Rog (1994) reported in their study of four rural districts in Kenya that 81% of girls aged 15 to 19 years had at least one pregnancy, 14% two pregnancies, and 3.2% three. Third, Kenya is strategically positioned as the port of call en route to the trans-Africa highway. …

Health-Information Sources for Kenyan Adolescents: Implications for Continuing HIV/AIDS Control and Prevention in Sub-Saharan Africa

The objectives of this article are to (a) present a theoretical framework for developing strategies and tactics that could be used to mobilize and empower African communities and help reduce the crippling burdens of public-health challenges, even as these societies suffer from the effects of wars and conflicts; (b) highlight reasons for mobilizing and empowering communities as strategic responses to the effects of internal armed conflicts on the delivery of health services, and, in turn, on a nation's health; and (c) recommend communication strategies and tactics for improving the health of Africa's populations both in peacetime and in wartime. The article draws upon two models—the health belief model and the community mobilization model—that are described as war- and conflict-victim mobilizing and empowerment models, which can be used to communicate with and to motivate and inspire victims of African's wars. These models are applied in a case study of two Netherlands-based international development and c...

E. Lincoln James

Papers

Interactivity reexamined: A baseline analysis of early business web sites

Advertising Ethics: Practitioner and Student Perspectives

Consumer Expectations of the Information Content in Advertising

Health-Information Sources for Kenyan Adolescents: Implications for Continuing HIV/AIDS Control and Prevention in Sub-Saharan Africa

Mobilizing and Empowering War-Torn African Communities to Improve Public Health