SCIENCE OF

COMMUNICATION

BY MANSI PANDEY
TOPICS :

• Agenda Setting theory

• Uses and Gratification theory
 Agenda Setting theory
"Here may lie the most important effect of
mass communication, its ability to mentally
order and organize our world for us. In short,
the mass media may not be successful in
telling us what to think, but they are
stunningly successful in telling us what to
think about."
—Shaw & McCombs, 1977
This theory was coined by Maxwell McCombs
and Donald Shaw in 1972. Agenda setting is a
type of public opinion research focused, not
on persuasion and attitude change, but on the
salience (or prominence) of issues on the
agendas of media, public or policy- makers.
Some of them are more important than the
others.
McCombs & Shaw's agenda-setting hypothesis
(1972) contends that the mass media's
pervasiveness, along with the passivity
of audiences, lends it a tremendous power to
shape opinion; also, that the media's
agenda is disproportionate to objective
measures, or real-world indicators, of various
social problems.
These theorists explained and described:

• How storied are selected, packaged and

presented(like gate keeping)
• The resulting agenda
• How this agenda effects what people think
about the significance of the issue presented.
The agenda-setting function is a 3
part-process:

• Media Agenda - issues discussed in the media

• Public Agenda - issues discussed and
personally relevant to the public
• Policy Agenda - issues that policy makers
consider important
 Uses and Gratification theory

This theory was given by katz in late 1950s.

The uses of mass media are dependent on
perception, the selectivity, the believes and
the interests of the people. The gratification
refers to satisfaction experienced by the users
after using a particular media.
Most of the theories on media explained
about the effects media had on people. It is
the theory which explains of how people use
media for their need and gratification.
In other words we can say this theory states
what people do with media rather than what
media does to people.
According to uses and gratification theory, it is
not so people make use of the media for their
specific needs. This theory can be said to have a
user/audience-centred approach .Even for
communication (say inter-personal) people refer
to the media for the topic they discuss with
themselves. They gain more knowledge and that
is knowledge is got by using media for reference.
The various uses and gratification can be:

• Cognition
• Diversion
• Social utility
• Withdrawal
 Cognition
Cognition means the process by which
knowledge and understanding developed in
mind. In this context, it refers to what a person
feels to watch or use media to get knowledge or
entertainment about a particular topic at that
particular moment.
 Diversion
Diversion means the act of changing the
direction of something, especially in order to
avoid problems. Here it refers in doing
something new in order to divert their mind
from various things such as
• Stimulus
• Relaxation
• Emotional release
• Reality exploration
 Social Utility
Social utility is a service, or characteristic, that
benefits the majority of population of any
given society. Here it refers to Social gathering
with media as secondary.
 Withdrawal
Withdrawal means moving or being moved
back or away from a place. Here it refers to
the interest one has in a particular media that
that person can leave or finish all the work in
order to use that media.
This theory says that the audience are not
passive but plays an active role in using the
media
THANK YOU