This study examines the relationship between television shows and their corresponding websites featuring interactive message boards looking at the motivations and gratifications that users cited as reasons for being connected to a program. Information found provides knowledge on why viewers are drawn to TV, and what rewards they gain from the actions they perform beyond viewing the show. Specifically, this study examines if viewing a television show and discussing it on an online message board created the gratification of a greater sense of emotional attachment with the show, and if this sense of heightened emotional connection encouraged the board user to take action or become involved in some other manner other than just viewing TV. A survey featuring Likert Scale and free response options in reference to the participants' television viewing and Internet usage habits was distributed to undergraduate students at the University of Central Florida, and also to the general population with an Internet survey. Information gained from this study will aid television producers and creators to better understand the habits of their message board audiences, and what actions could be taken to entice more viewers to view extra content in relation to the TV show, and how to get users to be more interactive with their product. By providing information about message boards' abilities to encourage emotion and action, more satisfying content can be created by the producers, and the users can gain a greater understanding of their media consumption.

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With the exposure of mass media, sports fans are able to enjoy games in real time in their homes (Beck & Bosshart, 2003; Phua, 2010). While just watching sports broadcasts, fans are likely to share the game experience with family, friends, and other fans who are following the same team (Gantz & Wenner, 1995). Besides, a significant number of people use social media when they are watching live sports broadcasts (Horn, 2012; Phua, 2012; Tang & Cooper, 2011). In particular, sports is one of the most common topics for Twitter users (Kwak, Lee, Park & Moon, 2010). Thus, this thesis explores 1) sports media audiences' motivations to watch live NFL game broadcasts with others, 2) their gratifications as a consequence of the group watching, 3) their motivations to use sports Twitter while watching live NFL game broadcasts, 4) their gratifications as a consequence of sports Twitter use while watching the game broadcasts, and 5) the level of gratifications as a consequence of the group watching and sports Twitter use. The factor analysis indicates that interactivity, fan identity, diversion/entertainment, and personal utility are the factors for the uses and gratifications of the group watching, while interactivity, information seeking, fan identity, and diversion/entertainment are the factors for sports Twitter use. All motivational factors are gratified as a consequence of sports group watching and Twitter use while watching the game broadcasts. This is the meaningful implication of the study that sports media allow the audience to have an opportunity to fulfill their desire for social interaction, and indeed, it is gratified as a consequence of sports media use. / Mass Media and Communication

This study expands research on uses and gratifications by exploring political information-seeking uses of the Internet and social networking sites (SNS) and their relationships with political efficacy and political participation. Approximately 300 young adults completed a survey covering information-seeking, information access, and information sharing uses for local civic and political purposes. The study hypothesizes that young adults' political talk, particularly in their online social networks, is associated with political efficacy. Variables that support the relationship between information-seeking and political efficacy are also explored. Random and convenience samples of young adults were combined in this study to explore the cognitive (perceived efficacy) and civic (actual behavior) behaviors of undergraduate students at Virginia Tech in order to examine the role of political talk in individuals' opinion networks measured by the outcome of political talk. Results show considerable support for hypotheses emphasizing the predicted relationships between Internet and SNS for political information-seeking uses, political efficacy, and political participation gratifications. Future research exploring the broad range of political communication uses and their association with political efficacy and political participation is warranted. / Master of Arts

In addition to recruitment pressures felt by all in higher education, community colleges have the unique challenge of communicating with students of all ages, interests, and academic levels, and doing so with limited staff and resources. Many recruiters have turned to social media as an important tool for reaching potential students. However, for community colleges with few staff, social media communication can be difficult and time-consuming. This study explores how community college administrators are using social media as a recruitment tool, and how this use aligns with students' needs and expectations. This two-part study employs uses and gratifications theory to guide qualitative interviews with the social media administrators at three Virginia community colleges and focus groups with current students at each of the colleges. This study takes a unique approach to theory by comparing the uses and gratifications of both the message creator and user. Social media administrators at the community colleges were found to use social media to gratify their awareness, recruitment, and reach/engagement needs. Students thinking about the recruitment process were found to expect community colleges' social media content to gratify their needs for socialization, discovery, and access. Administrators are meeting many of the students' reported social media recruitment needs but could use the data provided in this study to improve their social media efforts in a few emerging areas. / Master of Arts

This research set out to explore how individuals used Twitter during the Gatlinburg, Tennessee wildfire event of November 2016. More specifically, how and what did people from different geolocations share via Twitter during the crisis event and what gratifications were sought by their use of Twitter. A content analysis was completed on a stratified sample of tweets separated by geographic location. Based on prior uses and gratifications research, tweet and retweet content was coded as informational, social, and/or distractive. Findings from this research showed that individuals tweeted and retweeted at a fairly even rate despite their geographical location and that while information seeking and sharing was an important factor for users, social connectivity was the most important gratification to users during this crisis. / Master of Arts / This paper explored how and why individuals used Twitter during the Gatlinburg, Tennessee wildfire event in November 2016. Tweets from individuals who were in local, regional, and non-local areas were analyzed and coded based on the content of their tweet or retweet. Results from this research showed that the social connection an individual receives from using Twitter was the most important factor for using the service during a crisis situation.

Varför sitter människor i flera timmar och tittar på när någon annan spelar ett dator/tv-spel? Idag har spelstreaming vuxit sig stort och flera miljoner väljer att titta på spelandet. I vår undersökning kommer vi att svara på vad som motiverar vissa människor att titta på spelstreams genom en kvalitativ intervjustudie. Från den data som vi samlar in från intervjuer tar vi ut de motivationsfaktorer som nämns och delar in dem i fem behovskategorier: cognitive, affective, personal integrative, social integrative samt tension release. Genom vår studie så blev det klart att samma person kan titta på spelstreams vid olika tillfällen, med olika motiv. De två absolutvanligaste motiven till att se på spelstreams var underhållning och att lära sig något. / Why do people sit for hours to watch someone else play a videogame? Today gamingstreaming has grown large and millions of people choose to watch others play games. In our study we will answer what motivates people to watch gamingstreams through a qualitative interview study. From the data that we collect through interviews we will extract the motivationsfactors mentioned and sort them by five need-categories: cognitive, affective, personal integrative, social integrative and tension release. Our study showed that the same person can watch gamingstreams with different motives at different times. The two most common motives for watching thestreams was entertainment and learning something new.

Syftet med denna studie är att ta reda på hur stor andel studenter det är som tar del av nyheter på Facebook, och identifiera vad som kännetecknar dessa personer. Undersökningen görs med grund i att nyheter får allt mer utrymme i facebookflödet vilket är något som bidrar till större klyftor i människors nyhetskonsumtion. Fortsättningsvis blir det relevant att utvidga förståelsen för vilka dessa konsumenter är. Studien har genomförts med en kvantitativ metod i form av en enkätundersökning. Empirin har framtagits genom att 114 respondenter fått svara på sammanlagt 17 frågor gällande individuella faktorer, sin nyhetskonsumtion på Facebook samt vilka fördelar de ser med plattformen. Urvalet har begränsats till studenter på Karlstads universitet inom fyra olika utbildningar: ingenjör, medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap, ekonomi och handel samt sjuksköterska. Respondenterna har nåtts genom att enkäten publicerats i respektive utbildnings facebookgrupp. Den teoretiska utgångspunkten för studien är uses and gratifications, sociala fält, primära och sekundära nyhetspubliker samt tidigare forskning som berört nyhetskonsumtion både i traditionell mening och på sociala medier. Det finns en bred vetenskaplig grund vars fokus ligger på hur medierna påverkar publiken, men uses and gratifications belyser istället motsatsen, nämligen vad publiken gör med medierna. Därför blir framförallt denna teori den som genomgående berörs i studien. Resultatet i undersökningen visar att 92 procent av alla tillfrågade studenter tar del av nyheter via Facebook. Frekventa läsare, det vill säga de som gör det dagligen eller flera gånger i veckan, utgör 49 procent och därmed nästan hälften. Dessa flitiga konsumenter kännetecknas främst av att vara sjuksköterskor, kvinnor och av att ha studerat en kortare tid. I motsats är de minst benägna läsarna av facebooknyheter medie- och kommunikationsstudenter, män och personer som studerat en längre tid. Skillnaderna har sin grund dels i att kvinnor generellt använder det sociala nätverket mer än män, och dels i att olika utbildningar har skilda preferenser. Sjuksköterskor konsumerar frekvent nyheter på Facebook på grund av dess bekvämlighet och för att nyheterna ligger i deras intresse, medan mediestudenter oftare vänder sig till andra källor som ett resultat av att de vill täcka särskilda informationsbehov. Uppväxthem och föräldrarnas utbildningsnivå har inte visat sig vara av större betydelse för vem som är den mest frekventa nyhetskonsumenten på Facebook, inte heller graden av politiskt intresse. Här konsumerar både de med högt, medel och lågt intresse för politik dagligen nyheter på plattformen. Dock kan man se en tydlig dynamik mellan den förstnämnda och sistnämnda. De högt politiskt intresserade är de som i högst utsträckning följer en nyhets ursprungliga avsändare, samtidigt som dessa uppvisar en mer positiv inställning till interaktiviteten på Facebook där de kan dela, kommentera och diskutera nyheter. Därigenom blir de en primär nyhetspublik vilka sorterar ut och tolkar nyheter för de lågt politiskt intresserade, som i sin tur utmärks som en sekundär. Således influerar den primära publiken den sekundära med sina värderingar, åsikter och uppfattningar vilket enligt forskningen kan medföra en demokratisk utmaning. / The purpose of this study is to find out how big percentage of students that reads news on Facebook, and to identify what characterizes these people. The study is made with the knowledge that news seems to take more space in Facebook’s feed, which is something that contributes to larger gaps in people’s news consumption. Therefore, it will in the long run be relevant to extend the understanding of who these consumers are. The study has been carried out with a quantitative method in the shape of a survey. The empirical data has been retrieved by letting 114 respondents answer 17 questions concerning individual factors, their news consumption on Facebook and what advantages they see with the social platform. The sample has been limited to students at four different educational programs at the university of Karlstad; engineering, media and communications, economy and trade and nursing. The respondents have been reached by publishing the survey in the different groups on Facebook, belonging to each education. The theoretical starting point of the study is Uses and gratifications, Fields, Primary and secondary news audiences and previous research about news consumption both in a traditionally sense and on social media. There is a wide scientific belief that focuses on how the media is affecting the audience, but uses and gratifications instead, highlights the contrary - namely what the audience is doing with the media. That is why this theory is mainly used in this study. The results shows that 92 percent of all respondents read news on Facebook. Frequent readers, meaning the people that consume news on Facebook each day or several times a week, make up 49 percent of the total amount of students and thereby almost half of the totalt respondents. These frequent consumers are characterized mainly by the fact that they are students at the nursing program, females, and have been studying for a shorter period of time. In contrast, the least likely readers are students at the media and communications program, males, and those who have studied for a longer period of time. These differences are seen firstly because of the fact that females tend to spend more time on Facebook in general, and secondly since different educations have different preferences. The nurses frequently consumes news on Facebook because of its convenience and because they find that the news lies within their interests, while media students more often turn to other sources as a result of wanting to cover a certain need for information. Childhood home and the parent’s level of education have not shown to be of great significance to decide whether a person consumes news on Facebook, and neither has political interest. Both people with high, medium and low interest in politics daily consume news on the social platform. However, it is possible to see a clear dynamic between the first and last. Individuals with a high political interest tend to follow the original source of the news, whilst displaying a positive attitude to the interactivity on Facebook and the possibility to comment, discuss and share news. Because of this, they function as the primary news audience who sorts out and interpreters the news for the low politically interested, which, in turn, is characterized as the secondary news audience. Thus, the primary news audience influences the secondary with values, opinions and perceptions of the news, which according to research is something that could induce a democratic challenge.

Följande studie hanterar ämnet eSport. Med hjälp av uses & gratifications theory kommer eSportpublik studeras och analyseras, med syftet att förstå vilka motivationer som leder till att man vill titta på eSport. Studien kommer med hjälp av kvalitativ metod, det vill säga intervjuer och observationer, med tillämpande mini enkäter i observationerna studera publiken som tittar på eSport. Uses & gratifications är en teori som ofta tillämpas vid kvalitativ metod då de gratifikationer man analyserar är enkelt tillämpbara i intervjufrågor. Studien kom fram till att de viktigaste gratifikationerna för eSportpublik var underhållning samt tidsfördriv. Viktigt är det att notera att dessa faktorer var uppmuntrande för tolkning, där informanter har gett olika definitioner av samma faktorer, samt ger flera förklaringar på samma ord. Det är utifrån denna syn som arbetet har analyserats och ge ett definitivt svar på frågan varför publiken tittar på eSport. / The following essay studies the subject of eSport. The concept audience will be analysed with help of the uses & gratifications theory to create an understanding about the audience in eSport. The study will also with the help of qualitative methods, to be specific interviews and observations, with an applied mini- survey in the observations study the audiences of eSport. Uses & gratifications is a theory that a lot of the time is applicable in qualitative methods because the gratifications that are analyzed very often are easily applicable when writing questions for interviews. The result was that the most important gratifications for the audience of eSport was entertainment and killing time. It’s also important to note that these factors were encouraged for interpretation, and given multiple explanations regarding the same word. It’s based on this view that the study has been analyzed and given a definitive answer on the question why the audience watches eSport.