Selçuk iletiŞİM

Selçuk İletişim, 5, 3, 2008
24
version is in the functionalist approach. Katz,
Blumler and Gurevitch define the area of inter-
est  of  the  Uses  and  Gratifications  theory  as
follows: (1) the social and psychological ori-
gins of (2) needs, which generate (3) expecta-
tions of (4) the mass media or other sources,
which lead to (5) differential patterns of media
exposure (or engagement on other activities),
resulting in (6) need gratifications and (7) other
consequences, perhaps mostly unintended ones
(McQuail 1994: 318). Thus, the causes of me-
dia use are held to lie in social or psychological
circumstances which are experienced as prob-
lems, and the media are used for problem reso-
lution (the meeting of needs) in matters such as
information seeking, social contact, diversion,
social reaming and development. If media use
were unselective, then it could not be consid-
ered in any significant degree as an instrument
for problem-solving or even very meaningful
for the receiver. Much research over a period of
forty years seems to show that audience mem-
bers can and do describe their media experi-
ence in functional (that is, problem -solving
and need-meeting) terms. More contemporary
ideas regarding uses and gratifications ap-
proach are based on five assumptions (Palm-
green et al. 1985: 61-73): (1) Communication
behaviour such as media use is typically goal-
directed or motivated. Such behaviour is func-
tional for people: it has consequences for peo-
ple and societies, (2) People select and use
communication sources and messages to satisfy
their needs or desires. Media use is a means to
satisfy wants of interests such as seeking in-
formation to reduce uncertainty or to solve
personal dilemmas, (3) Social and psychologi-
cal factors mediate communication behaviour.
Behaviour is a response to media only as fil-
tered through one's social and psychological
circumstances such as the potential for inter-
personal interaction, social categories and per-
sonality, (4) Media compete with other forms
of communication for selection, attention and
use. There are definite relationships between
media and interpersonal communication for
satisfying needs or wants and (5) People are
usually more influential than media in media-
person relationships.
A  number  of  results  put  forth  within  the
framework of the theory state that media do not
use people but people use media, they satisfy
certain needs, they become dependent upon
media as they consume media content and gain
gratification. According to the theory, people
who move towards media for psychological
gratification have four reasons for watching the
media (Anık 2003: 72-73):
a. Consumers of media products first gain emo-
tional comfort and pleasure of gaining relief
from their daily stress by watching enter-
tainment programs.
b. Second, by watching programs (usually
drama) which are favourable for them; they
learn the ways to develop their personal rela-
tions, to make friends and to get rid of lone-
liness from the media or they satisfy their re-
lated needs in virtual ways by identifying
themselves with characters.
c. Third, viewers affect others and come into
their view, gain prestige, are appreciated-
regarded, gain aesthetic and literary skills,
motivate themselves towards success by us-
ing media.
d. Finally people remain dependent on media
contents in order to see that their beliefs are
confirmed, to make sure that they are on the
right track, to position themselves and the
others by analyzing the personality of their
own and the personalities of the others.
In brief, media contents function as a tool for
the psychological gratification of individuals,
entertain them and media use is one of the most
preferred free time activities. The reason is that
media contents can be consumed both in
groups and individually and provide satisfac-
tion in both cases.
Within the framework of several uses and
gratifications studies on television viewing
motivations  conducted by a number of re-
searchers with different samples within the
time period from the beginning of the 1970s to
our day, television viewing motivations can
generally be listed as follows: information-
learning, entertainment, economic, conforma-
tion, companionship, relaxation, pass time,
arousal, habit, behavioural guide, escape-
forget, product advert, social interaction, su-
pervision, interpersonal utility, para-social
interaction, reaction, knowledge, belief, social
compensation, mood management, status en-

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A Crosscultural Serial: Watching Motives Of The Serial… (20-29)
25
hancement, informational guide, distraction,
ritualized viewing, social learning, different
world, moral support (Koçak 2001).
As a point of view which emphasizes psychol-
ogy, Zillmann (1994: 33-51) analyzes enter-
tainment as a strange process in which the
viewers are involved during exposure. Affec-
tive Disposition Theory, which is applied to a
number of different programs and different
types of viewers, is seen as the strongest theory
in its field today. The theory analytically dis-
cusses the watching process of a drama in
seven stages. Zillmann (1994 and 1996) con-
ceptualizes the viewers as witnesses to dra-
matic events involving the characters in a story.
Accordingly, the audience who observe the
characters of the story during viewing; 1)
Evaluate the actions taken by the characters on
a moral dimension 2) If the audience morally
consents to the behaviour of a character, they
establish a positive affective disposition to-
wards this character, that is, they begin to like
her/him 3) Likeable characters are usually the
heroes or “good guys”. In contrast, viewers
develop negative feelings towards characters
who are judged to behave in a morally unac-
ceptable way and who are normally the “bad
guys.” Based on these affective dispositions,
the audience takes a specific perspective on the
progress of the story. In anticipating the ongo-
ing events, viewers hope for outcomes that the
characters deserve; that is, they desire a posi-
tive outcome for the likeable characters (such
as happiness) and a negative outcome for the
resented characters (such as punishment).
Complementarily to these hopes, viewers or
readers fear that likeable characters receive a
negative outcome and that the bad guys receive
an underserved positive outcome. 4) The actual
events of the story are evaluated against these
hopes and fears: viewers compare the presented
outcomes to their anticipations and wishes. 5)
If the displayed results match with the moral
expectations of the audience, which means
there is a happy end for the “good guys” and/or
a bad ending for the bad guys, positive emo-
tions (euphoria) are the result. 6) Because the
viewers or readers empathize with the charac-
ters (Zillmann 1991). In the case of bad guys
receiving their deserved bad outcome, a mecha-
nism that is called counterempathy takes effect.
Based on the moral justification of the bad
outcome, the viewers experience positive emo-
tions from witnessing the actually negative
outcome. If, in contrast, the displayed results
do not fit to the hopes of the viewers related to
the good guys and bad guys, negative feelings
(dysphoria) will be experienced because of
empathic disappointment or anger about the
defeat of the good guys and/or the undeserved
success of the bad guys. The latter case is again
a form of counterempathy because negative
emotions arise from witnessed positive out-
comes. The emotions (that is, both positive and
negative affective responses) that are elicited
during this step of Affective Disposition The-
ory’s process model can be considered the key
part of the entertainment experience, for exam-
ple, suspense. Finally, 7) the outcome is evalu-
ated morally; and the cyclic appreciation proc-
ess is started.
METHODS
Sample and Measurement
The data for this study were collected from
Selçuk University students in Turkey who are
serial Yabancı Damat viewers. The samples of
the study were selected from 19 faculties of the
university which are located in the centre of
Konya. Faculties and vocational colleges that
aren’t  in  Konya  province  were  left  out  of  the
research study.
In the study, 1610 samples were randomly
selected among students. Faculties varied in the
number of departments they had. Departments
were selected randomly within each faculty and
classes were selected randomly within selected
departments. All the students in the selected
class were interviewed. Excess number of
students was due to the varying size of classes
in different departments.
Data gathering instrument was a questionnaire
which has a total of 105 questions. 36 ques-
tions measured motivations of use while watch-
ing TV serial Yabancı Damat, 21 questions
measured watching TV and TV serials behav-
iours. 32 questions measured social - political
attitudes and perception of Greece. There were
11 questions probing demographic characteris-
tics of the students. 4 questions measured the
information source of the students. And 1 ques-

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