Explaining and analyzing audiences : a social cognitive approach to selectivity and media use

This study explored LaRose and Eastin’s (2004) model of media attendance, within a European context. It extended the uses and gratifications (U and G) paradigm within the framework of social cognitive theory (SCT) by instituting new operational measures of gratifications sought, reconstructed as outcome expectations. Although the model of media attendance offers some promising steps forward in measuring media selectivity and usage, and to some extent is applicable to another context of media use, the relative importance of outcome expectancies in explaining media usage and selectivity is not fully supported.