The issues of how the media affect people, and what people do with the media have presented perennial and perplexing questions for communication scholars. Some of the research results in these areas are more controversial than useful. Uses and gratification studies straddle the two domains of media effects and people's employment of the media. The field of gratifications research holds great promise in the continual search for comprehensive knowledge on how and why we use the media. Drawing from a wide range of local and international literature, this unit presents copious evidence to show that gratifications research has universal application in many contexts, including development communication.
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