Understanding Internet Usage : A Social-Cognitive Approach to Uses and Gratifications

Robert Larose, Dana Mastro, Matthew S. Eastin (2001) Understanding Internet Usage: A Social-Cognitive Approach to Uses and Gratifications, Social Science Computer Review 19: 395, DOI: 10.1177/089443930101900401

Abstract

Several studies have applied uses and gratifications to explain Internet usage. Like Bandura’s social-cognitive theory, the uses and gratifications framework explains media use in terms of expected positive outcomes, or gratifications. However, previous uses and gratifications research accounted for little variance in Internet behavior, although there were conflicting results. This research identifies new variables from social-cognitive theory that might further explain Internet usage and resolve inconsistencies in prior research. Measures of self-efficacy and self-disparagement were developed for the domain of Internet behavior. Internet addiction was interpreted as a deficient self-regulation within the social-cognitive framework. Finally, the negative outcomes of online behavior were analyzed for their impact on Internet usage. In a survey of 171 college students, the social-cognitive model explained 60% of the available variance in Internet usage using multiple regression analysis, a significant improvement over prior uses and gratifications research.

Keywords: Internet use, Internet behavior, social-cognitive theory, self-efficacy, self-disparagement, gratifications, multiple regression models

Barbara K. Kaye : Going to the Blogs: Toward the Development of a Uses and Gratifications Measurement Scale for Blogs

Barbara K. Kaye
School of Journalism & Electronic Media
University of Tennessee

This article investigates the uses and motivations for connecting to blogs. Rather than relying on motivations from preexisting scales measuring traditional media or Internet use that must be adapted for blogs, motivations are derived from open-ended questions about blog use from a preliminary survey. The current study is based on a follow-up survey conducted in 2007 to quantitatively investigate blog use. Factor analysis of 56 motivational items resulted in nine motivational factors: Convenient Information Seeking, Anti-Traditional Media Sentiment, Expression/Affiliation, Guidance/Opinion Seeking, Blog Ambiance, Personal Fulfillment, Political Debate, Variety of Opinion, and Specific Inquiry. This article also offers suggestions for reducing the number of motivational variables.

Barbara K. Kaye (2010): Going to the Blogs: Toward the Development of a Uses and Gratifications Measurement Scale for Blogs, Atlantic Journal of Communication, 18:4, 194-210

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15456870.2010.505904