Uses and Gratification (Weaknesses and Strengths)
One influential tradition in media research is referred to as 'uses and gratifications' (occasionally 'needs and gratifications'). This approach focuses on why people use particular media rather than on content. In contrast to the concern of the 'media effects' tradition with 'what media do to people' (which assumes a homogeneous mass audience and a 'hypodermic' view of media), U & G can be seen as part of a broader trend amongst media researchers which is more concerned with 'what people do with media', allowing for a variety of responses and interpretations. However, some commentators have argued that gratifications could also be seen as effects: e.g. thrillers are likely to generate very similar responses amongst most viewers. And who could say that they never watch more TV than they had intended to? Watching TV helps to shape audience needs and expectations.
U & G arose originally in the 1940s and underwent a revival in the 1970s and 1980s. The approach springs from a functionalist paradigm in the social sciences. It presents the use of media in terms of the gratification of social or psychological needs of the individual (Blumer & Katz 1974). The mass media compete with other sources of gratification, but gratifications can be obtained from a medium's content (e.g. watching a specific programme), from familiarity with a genre within the medium (e.g. watching soap operas), from general exposure to the medium (e.g. watching TV), and from the social context in which it is used (e.g. watching TV with the family). U & G theorists argue that people's needs influence how they use and respond to a medium. Zillmann (cited by McQuail 1987: 236) has shown the influence of mood on media choice: boredom encourages the choice of exciting content and stress encourages a choice of relaxing content. The same TV programme may gratify different needs for different individuals. Different needs are associated with individual personalities, stages of maturation, backgrounds and social roles.
Uses can be defined as

Gratification is also defined as the state of gratifying, or pleasing the either the mind, the taste, or the appetite , as the gratification of palate, of the appetites, of the senses, of the (one’s) desires, of the heart (an individual).It is also that ‘which affords pleasure, satisfaction, delight, enjoyment or fruition.
Uses and Gratification Theory is the idea that, the audiences of mass media texts actively use these to fulfill a complex set of needs, For example, to gain information, to be entertained, to discuss with others as a “social facilitator”, to explore ideas among other functions.

DISADVANTAGES
 Uses and Gratifications Theory has been criticized as “vulgar gratificationism”. It is individualistic and psychologistic tending to ignore the socio-cultural context.
 Zillman (cited by Denis McQuail, 1987: pg236) has shown the mood of influence on media choice. Boredom encourages the choice of exciting contexts and stress encourages the choice of relaxing contexts, so what happens to the other contexts?
 Arguments arose that, people’s needs influence how they use and respond to a medium. For example, a sad person will on no condition listen to a program where listeners phone in to express and extend their condolences to bereaved personality.
 U and G theory is often too individualistic. It makes it too difficult to predict beyond the people.
 The cornerstones of U&G theory, the notion of an active audience and the validity of self-report data to determine motives, are assumed by researchers, and that assumption may be “a little simplistic or naive” (Severin &Tankard, 1997, p. 335).Thus, some critics continue to argue that traditional U&G methodologies, particularly those dependent on self-reported typologies and relying on interpretation of lifestyle and attitude variables rather than observable audience behavior, are suspect(Rosenstein & Grant, 1997).

Works Cited:
Zillman, Denis McQuail, et al.