Uses and Gratifications-1

.docx

School

University of Kentucky *

*We aren’t endorsed by this school

Course

110

Subject

Communications

Date

Feb 20, 2024

Type

docx

Pages

Uploaded by DukeTeamSkunk39

1 Uses and Gratifications of TikTok Jace Kelley College of Communication and Information, University of Kentucky CIS 110: Composition and Communication I Ms. Blanca Muñoz 10/14/22

2 Uses and Gratifications of TikTok In 2022, TikTok is one of the world’s largest apps, with over one billion users on its platform. Originally named “Douyin,” TikTok is an app developed by Chinese tech company ByteDance in 2016. However, Douyin is not the app many know today. In 2017, ByteDance bought out “Musical.ly,” an app that gained major popularity in 2015 for its short form videos where users would lip-sync and dance to the app’s large music library, similarly to how TikTok started out. When ByteDance bought Musical.ly, they merged many of the features of both Musical.ly and Douyin, creating what we know today as TikTok. However, in 2022, TikTok is much more than an app for children to dance and lip-sync on. Today, it is a platform for the news, tutorials, ASMR, sports, fashion and even more. Even with the apps broad selection of content, many people still wonder why TikTok is so popular. However, there is a psychological explanation for the popularity of the app. TikTok is widely believed by experts to satisfy the five psychological needs that the uses and gratifications theory outlines. This paper will define these psychological needs and explain thoroughly how TikTok satisfies all of them.

3 Uses and Gratifications Theory The Uses and Gratifications theory is a theory created by communication experts that states that people will choose the type of media that they use to satisfy their five psychological needs of the uses and gratification theory. These five psychological needs are cognitive, affective, social integrative, personal integrative, and tension release. Cognitive Needs Cognitive needs refer to acquiring information to aid the thinking and understanding process ( Uses and gratifications theory 2012). When consuming media, people watch information videos, such as the news, tutorial videos, and documentaries to satisfy their cognitive needs. In the scope of TikTok, obviously full documentaries are not on the platform, however tutorial videos and news videos are some of the most popular on the platform. According to a study by Ofcom, a government office responsible for the regulation of telecommunications in the United Kingdom, the percent of people who receive their news from TikTok increased from 1% to 7% in just one year. This shows tremendous growth in the amount of people using TikTok for news, and also shows that TikTok satisfies the cognitive needs. Affective Needs Affective needs refer to users using media to arouse emotions, such as fear, happiness, sadness, etc. When using TikTok, users typically log onto the app in order to find videos that entertain them, such as comedy, sports, or gaming videos. As compared to other social media

Your preview ends here

Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version

Access to all documents
Unlimited textbook solutions
24/7 expert homework help