Determining Uses and Gratifications for Indian Internet Users

Abstract

Uses and gratification theory aids in the assessment of how audiences use a particular medium and the gratifications they derive from that use. In this paper this theory has been applied to derive Internet uses and gratifications for Indian Internet users. This study proceeds in four stages. First, six first-order gratifications namely self development, wide exposure, user friendliness, relaxation, career opportunities, and global exchange were identified using an exploratory factor analysis. Then the first order gratifications were subjected to first-order confirmatory factor analysis. Third, using second-order confirmatory factor analysis three types of second-order gratifications were obtained, namely process gratifications, content gratifications and social gratifications. Finally, with the use of t-tests the study has shown that males and females differ significantly on the gratification factors “self development”, “user friendliness”, “wide exposure” and “relaxation.” The intended audience consists of masters’ level students and doctoral students who want to learn exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. This case study can also be used to teach the basics of structural equation modeling using the software AMOS.