Post #3- Use It (Media) or Lose It (Gratification)

As most of us have grown up in a media dominated environment, college students (as well as many other Americans) have grown accustom to use media to the ends of our gratification. It is in this way that media study theorist have the notion of uses and gratification.
Uses and gratification is a media theory in which "users actively seek out media that meet their needs for new knowledge, social interactions, and diversion" (1). In other words, we as users of media, use different mediums in order to complete a goal we have in mind, be it to catch up on the latest horror stories in Iraq or to catch up on the latest celebrity gossip. In this theory, user's goal must match "the gratifications [...] we actually obtain from the media." (1) In this sense, if your interested goal (gratification) is to acquire knowledge pertinent to your RTF 305 blog assignment, reading Media Now would satisfy this goal whereas watching music videos by The Drums will not satisfy this goal (although it does create gratification for musical needs).
Now, as my example, if someone wanted to satisfy the need to laugh, watch a comedy, see inappropriate (but extremely hilarious) humor, or simply to admire the host, then viewing the following video would gratify that need. However, if you were in the market for something educational, dramatic, or romantic, you would not be gratified by this particular medium and would find a different medium that would satisfy that goal.