comparing and contrasting agenda setting and uses and gratification theory

Agenda setting and the uses and gratifications theory are two completely different ideas when looked at separately. However, when applied together, they both can be utilized as two intertwining functions of communication, and work as a team to successfully target audiences in that sense.
The uses and gratifications theory says that consumers use media to achieve and satisfy specific fulfillment needs. It looks at why people use media and what, exactly, they use it for. The four primary categories for which people make use of media in uses and gratification are: diversion, personal relationships, personal identity and surveillance. This theory regards people as active media users rather than passive, and it explains why audiences choose to be subjected to the media that they select.
Agenda setting is the theory that explains the influence that mass-media has on its audience, considering what the public prioritizes as “news-worthy”, and what media they direct their attention to. It’s the variable degrees of attention the mass media gives to certain ideas, issues or themes, which in turn lends them more or less significance. The news media is thus able to create public awareness and concern of salient issues. This theory has tremendous explanatory power because it explains what issues the public sees as important and predictive power because it realizes that people will lend importance to certain issues, if exposed to the same media.
Agenda setting can be used as a jumping off point for consumer research, which can be aid in the applied use of the uses and gratifications theory. By knowing your audiences “agenda”, an organization is able to create appropriate messages that their audience will congregate to, and what specific needs they seek to have satisfied. The uses and gratifications theory largely depends on research of what the consumers’ needs are, and how consumers apply them. This is especially important in agenda setting because this tactic relies on knowledge of what the public considers important, and what gratifications they are seeking to have satisfied. When applying agenda setting to the uses and gratifications theory, an organization is able to effectively direct their efforts to their audience’s specific needs, and thus create a successful mass communication message.