The uses and dependency model of mass communication

This essay responds to the individualistic criticism of the uses and gratifications perspective by considering social‐structural conditions that affect media uses and effects, and by proposing an audience‐centered and society‐based framework for examining mass communication processes. The nature of media dependency, the origins of dependency, audience needs and motives, audience‐media‐society relationships, functional alternatives, information seeking, and media effects are discussed as central concepts of the uses and dependency model of mass communication.