In 1969 Jay Blumler and Denis McQuail studied the 1964 election in the United Kingdom by examining people's motives for watching certain political programs on television. By categorizing the audience's motives for viewing a certain program, they aimed to understand any potential mass-media effects by classifying viewers according to their needs.[6] The audience motivations they were able to identify helped lay the groundwork for their research in 1972 and eventually uses and gratifications theory.[12] McQuail, Blumler and Joseph Brown suggested that the uses of different types of media could be grouped into 4 categories: diversion, personal relationships, personal identity, surveillance (i.e. forms of information seeking).[12]
McQuail, Blumler and Brown were joined in their media exploration by Elihu Katz, Michael Gurevitch and Hadassah Haas, and their collaborative research began to indicate how people saw the mass media.[12] A 1974 study by Katz, Blumler, and Gurevitch stated five basic assumptions for a framework for understanding the correlation between media and audiences. These assumptions are:[13]
The audience is conceived as active.
In the mass communication process, much initiative in linking gratification and media choice lies with the audience member.
The media compete with other sources of satisfaction.
Methodologically speaking, many of the goals of mass media use can be derived from data supplied by individual audience members themselves.
Value judgments about the cultural significance of mass communication should be suspended while audience orientations are explored on their own terms.
According to their research, goals for media use can be grouped into five uses.[7] The audience wants to:
Be informed or educated
Identify with characters of the situation in the media environment
Simple entertainment
Enhance social interaction
Escape from the stresses of daily life