Open Access Kent State (OAKS)

We examined whether motivation for watching television violence explains viewer aggression and considered the contribution of individual viewer differences, including locus of control, experience with crime, exposure to television violence, perceived realism, and viewer involvement. Several viewing motives and individual differences predicted aggression. Where exposure to television violence was a significant predictor of aggression, experience with crime, locus of control, or motivation were stronger predictors. Path analysis revealed direct and indirect links between audience predictors and aggression outcomes. Results were consistent with uses and gratifications assumptions that individual characteristics and expectations mediate the impact of exposure. Individual characteristics predicted aggressive attitudes, often independent of motivation, contextual factors or attitudes, and exposure. There was no conclusive direct link between exposure and aggression. Because motivation for watching television violence differentially affected aggression, research that neglects to consider viewer motivation and other audience characteristics when drawing conclusions about the effects of violence on aggression is called into question.

Guided by the uses and gratifications perspective, we examined how dispositional factors--aggression, anger, attitudes toward women, and communication anxiety and reward--and television-viewing factors--motivation, attitudes, topics, emotions, and parasocial interaction--explained attraction to different TV talk shows. We considered how these dispositional and viewing factors discriminated among different talk show preferences and different levels of aggression. Compared with The Oprah Winfrey Show viewers, Jerry Springer viewers thought shows were less realistic; enjoyed watching voyeuristic topics and guests' being angry, embarrassed, shocked, and hurt; watched to be entertained and excited rather than to be informed; and developed fewer parasocial relationships. Compared with persons with low levels of aggression, those with high levels of aggression were angry; had negative attitudes toward women; enjoyed watching guests' being embarrassed, angry, shocked, and hurt; thought others did not value their interpersonal interactions; and watched talk shows more often, especially to interact with others. We discuss the implications of these findings.

We examined third-person effects in the context of television coverage of terrorist-related stories in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Whereas third-person effects research suggests the magnitude of perceptual bias is the important predictor of behavioral intention, such as restrictions on media content, uses and gratifications suggests perceptual bias is one influence amid other influential individual differences. We examined whether exposure to terrorist-related television stories, locus of control, experience with crime, viewing motivation, third-person perceptual bias, and two viewer social attitudes-fear and faith in others—work in concert to predict support for restrictions aimed at combating terrorist activity. Path analysis revealed direct and indirect links among audience predictors and third-person perceptual bias, and between perceptual bias and social attitudes. However, there was no direct link between third-person perceptual bias and support for policies aimed at combating terrorism. Because locus of control and viewer motives were important antecedents of third-person perceptual bias, and perceptual bias was linked with fear, the results suggest that third-person effects research should be expanded to examine a wider range of media effects than those to which it has been applied in the past.

Guided by the Uses and Gratifications (U&G) perspective, this study examined the influence of unwillingness to communicate, loneliness, Internet-use motives, and Internet (CMC) use and interaction (amount and types of use and self-disclosure) in online communication satisfaction and online relationship closeness. There were 261 participants in this study. Overall, participants who perceived their face-to-face communication to be rewarding, used CMC for self-fulfillment, and disclosed their personal feelings to others tended to feel close to their online partners. Moreover, those who used the Internet for purposes of self-fulfillment and affection and intended to disclose their feelings to others felt satisfied with their online communication. The associations among the constructs extend our knowledge of the U&G theoretical model, how and why people communicate interpersonally in CMC settings, and the influence of individual differences on CMC for relational communication.

Links among demographics, motivation for using the Internet, cognitive and affective involvement, and Internet dependency were investigated. By integrating uses and gratifications theory and media dependency research, motivation was found to play a more important antecedent role in explaining Internet dependency than demographics, and cognitive and affective involvement mediated the relationship between motivation and Internet dependency. This finding supported the uses and gratifications argument that certain factors intervene in the media uses and effects process between motivation to communicate and outcomes of communication behavior such as media use.

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