Essay

The uses and gratifications theory created by Blumler and Katz in 1970 seeks to identify why people consume media. Many of the sub-theories within the uses and gratifications theory can be applied to our film, Her Majesty's Wasteland, even though they are not as obvious as many more conventional film genres, but applicable non the less.

One of the most prominent factors in our film is the loneliness experienced by the main character. Many people consume media to relate to the characters, one of the factors identified in the uses and gratifications theory and the one of the main reasons dramas and soap operas are so popular, and one way the audience can relate to the characters in the film. The main character experiences many events throughout the film that are pretty common in the real world, although not completely the same. The characters loneliness could be translated to the audience as just that, being lonely. The audience members that are experiencing the same thing at the time of viewing the film will relate to this and make them feel that they have something in common with the character, subconsciously pushing them to continue watching to see how things turn out for the main character, perhaps for an insight to what will happen to them in the end. Some of the other events that happen to the main character such as being beaten could also relate to people in the real world, bullying being the most obvious. The main characters personality may also reflect some of the viewers personalities, which will make the character even more rateable than just the event that unfold around them alone.

The way in which the audience relates to the character leads nicely onto another part of the uses and gratifications theory, escapism. Many audiences consume media texts as an escape from the real world that they live in, seeing a fictional character deal with their problems offers an escape from any problems the audience may be going through. Not only could the audience relate to the character on a more personal level, but they could also be going though tough times, and watching someone else deal with their problems offers valuable time away from their own.

On a more lighter side, many audiences consume media text purely for entrainment. Our film features many aspects that are entertaining to a wide range of audiences, form fight scenes to stealthy 'hitman' style scenes, there is something for any audience member.

The last aspect of the uses and gratifications theory is education/information. This our film defiantly does not offer. It is based in a fictional world with fictional characters with no similarities to the real world. The only people that would be educated by our film would be those tin foil hat doomsday preppers. Our film was never designed to be educational and only a fool would take anything in our film as being factual.

Our film fills many aspects of the uses and gratifications theory, some more than others, and of course there are many other theories that can be applied to our film.