Determining Uses and Gratifications for the Internet

• Published in: Decision sciences Vol. 35; no. 2; pp. 259 - 288
• Main Authors: Stafford, Thomas F., Stafford, Marla Royne, Schkade, Lawrence L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: J. Mack Robinson College of Business, Georgia State University , Atlanta , GA 30303 , 404-651-4073, fax: 404-651-2804 Decision Sciences 01.05.2004; American Institute for Decision Sciences
• Subjects: Choice Processes; Confirmatory Analysis; Consumer Behavior; Customer services; Decision making; Electronic commerce; End-User Computing; Functional Areas; Human/Computer Interaction; Human/Computer Interaction, Internet; Internet; Internet access; Internet resources; Internet service providers; Investigations; Marketing; Methodological Areas; Motivation; Multivariate analysis; Multivariate Statistics; Statistical analysis; Studies; Survey Research; Technological change; Uses and Gratifications; United States > US
• ISSN: 0011-7315; 1540-5915
• DOI: 10.1111/j.00117315.2004.02524.x

ABSTRACT Uses and gratifications (U&G) is a media use paradigm from mass communications research that guides the assessment of consumer motivations for media usage and access. It has been used previously in research and decision making related to the promotion of emerging radio and television media. Recent adaptations of U&G research to the Internet are incomplete and have not identified important new Internet‐specific gratifications. This paper empirically derives dimensions of consumer Internet use and usage gratifications among customers of a prominent Internet Service Provider (ISP). Results describe three key dimensions related to consumer use of the Internet, including process and content gratifications as previously found in studies of television, as well as an entirely new social gratification that is unique to Internet use. All three dimensions of gratification are relevant to managing the Internet as a commercial medium, and measures developed from the gratification profiles identified here can serve as trait‐valid scales in future Internet and e‐commerce research.