Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper introduces a theoretical and empirical foundation for the role of sex in defining television viewer’s preferences and media gratification. Based on a sample of 202 undergraduates at a large Midwestern university, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was employed to identify five factors of a television preferences scale (TPS) designed to measure the types of television programs preferred by viewers. Similar analyses were employed to identify six factors of a media uses and gratifications scale (UGS) designed to measure why people select certain media types. The UGS is an instrument known to be composed of several constructs that are indicators of why people consume a type of media. Therefore, it is important to identify which items measure which factors so that several content valid subscales can be identified and employed to measure different uses and gratifications. The identified factors were subsequently subjected to a confirmatory factor analytic procedure (CFA) to test the fit of the derived measurement models. It was hypothesized that people’s sex would predict both their television preferences and media uses and gratifications. Results suggested that differences between men and women can predict media uses and gratifications as well as television preferences.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: While numerous studies provide evidence on how Instant Messaging is used in the workplace, there is little empirical evidence on how IM is used among college students, the largest segment of the rapidly growing IM user population.
An online survey of college student IM users (N=443) was conducted to examine the role of three important concepts—gratifications sought (GS), gratifications obtained (GO), and social presence—in the context of IM use.
Results indicate that 1) College students used IM to seek fulfillment of social utility, interpersonal utility, convenience, entertainment/relaxation, and information needs and did so successfully through IM use. The two most salient gratifications (both sought and obtained) were convenience and social utility. 2) Social presence was positively and significantly related to GS and GO. The mediating role of social presence suggested that the relationship between GS and GO depends on the extent to which college students feel a sense of “being together.” 3) The convenience motive, followed by the entertainment/relaxation motive and the convenience benefit were the strongest predictors of IM use. 4) Both GS and GO were influenced by social presence and GS had a direct effect on IM use, while GO had an indirect effect.
Implications for extending uses and gratifications and social presence theory and research are discussed.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Based on a telephone survey of 986 residents, this paper investigates the uses and gratifications of wireless portable broadband in Korea. Methodology includes exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory analysis, and multiple regression analysis of subsequent theoretical constructs. Results describe 3 key dimensions related to consumer use of wireless broadband, including process, content, and social gratifications as previously found in studies of the Internet, as well as an embedded gratification that is unique to wireless broadband use. All 4 dimensions of gratification are relevant to managing wireless broadband, and measures developed from the gratification profiles identified here can serve as trait-valid scales in future Internet research.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper discusses the relationship between various levels of media gratifications. It proposes both an analytic and an empirical differentiation between: (1) Gratifications expected, i.e. naïve theories held by media users about the capacity of different media channels (here: World Wide Web and television). This type of gratification is depicted by traditional survey methods of uses and gratifications research. (2) Gratifications sought and obtained measured directly in the situation. It is argued that conventional survey methods capture gratifications independent of the using situation. Therefore the respondent has to remember and generalize his/her usual media behavior. This might lead to an answering bias. We propose a situational measurement by using the “Experience Sampling Method” that induces self-observations at random points in time. This method depicts behavior and attitudes while using mass media. Results show that the situational measurement is helpful in understanding media gratifications and in predicting media behavior.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Many scholars take the assumption that all communication, although frequently automatic, is inherently strategic. Scholars subscribing to the uses and gratifications approach in the study of interpersonal communication media use share this assumption. Although goals have measured in such studies, those have seldom been requested in context and used for little aside from goal or need listing. Using time space diaries, the present study aimed to determine what patterns of superiority emerge as different interpersonal communication goals arise.