DRAWBACKS OF THE USES AND GRATIFICATION THEORY

From the Website of the University of Twente, Uses and Gratification Theory explain the uses and functions of the media for the individual, group and society in general. There are three objectives for developing uses and gratification theory. First, how individuals use mass communication to satisfy or gratify their needs, secondly, to discover underlying motives for individuals' use of the media and lastly to identify the positives and negative consequences of individuals media use.

According to Aber.ac.uk, Uses and Gratification Theory originated in the 1970s as a reaction to traditional mass communication research emphasing the sender and the message, stressing the active audience and user instead.

In Uses and Gratifications Theory, individual control consumption according to conscious goals.If the assumption holds and its true, then it means that the individual consumer maybe at risk as to the media content he/she decides to consume and the media cannot have a proper control over its audience or readership in the society thereby failing to fulfill its obligation as the watchdog of the society. Let's say audience have the power to choose which media content they would like to consume and the content being pornography or movies exhibiting radicalism, the consumer is exposed to get involved in social vices which in the short run affect society.
The argument that the public can choose the media content they want to consume is wrong. Any media item put before the public by the media has it target audience so any item the public consume plays part of the agenda setting of the media and there the public no hand in determining what issue or media item the media put in the market.

References
University of Utrecht website address http://www.cw.utwente.nl/theorieenoverzicht/Theory%20clusters/Communication%20and%20Information%20Technology/Uses_and_Gratifications_Approach-1.doc/ Explanation of Uses and Gratification Theory
Aber.ac.uk, http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/short/usegrat.html. Extract for the origin of Uses and Gratification theory
Aber.ac.uk, http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/short/usegrat.html#D Extract for the criticism of the Uses and Gratification Theory