weaknesses and drawbacks in the uses and gratification theory ofthe media and the adenda setting role of the media

Having stated the contents of both the agenda setting theory, and the uses and gratification theory of the media it is time to bring to bear the loopholes inherent them.As already stated,the uses and gratification theory holds that, media consumers make choices of the contents media encodes to satisfy or fulfill their needs.it is in this vein that some scholars like Blumer and Katz have argued saying that,the theory places more emphasis on the consumer whilst negecting the media and thereby subjecting its power into questioning.

Other criticisms leveled against this theory are that the media has the power to influence consumers behaviours and thereby condemning the fact that the theory places all the power to the consumers.for example even though the media is aware of the power of the consumer it still encourages the purchasing decisions of consumers and research has proven this.

Tthe agenda setting theory ofthe media also states that it is the media who bring on board issues they deem important in the society.this is mostly done by the particular attention that the media may give to a particular issue.The media thus achieves this by introducing headlines,frontpages positioning o fthe said issues etc

The weaknesses of this theory is that the consumer here is seen to be passive and hence has no control over media contents.The theory also ignores the fact that the consumers may not attach the same kind of importtance or relevance to the content as it may.For example the issue of politics as is deemed by most people in the country may not neccessarily interest children between the ages of ten and eleven and hence may not attach same imortance to it(politics)