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Evolution and Theories of Communication | 75

Once the powerful role of cognitive variables and subcultures became
clear, it was no longer possible to conceptualize audience in this manner.
Some, critics feel that the uses and gratification approach is less than an
independent theory in its own right; rather, it is a limited restatement of cer-
tain aspects of selective theories. They point to the fact that its main propo-
sition is that the needs and rewards, which the individuals obtain from the
mass media and influence people’s patterns of attention to media content,
and the uses to which they put the information obtained there from. This
is essentially a simple version of the individual differences theory based on
considerations of cognitive structure.
Another limitation is that using the uses and gratification perspective for
research has generated little more than lists of ‘reasons’ (various kinds of self
identified ‘needs’) for which people claim that they select and attend to differ-
ent categories of media content (e.g., self identified ‘gratification’). The perspec-
tive does not provide much in the way of systematic explanation beyond that.

Selective Perception

The difference between selective perception and selective exposure is that in
the latter one chooses what to see, while in selective exposure one chooses
how to interpret what one sees. Selective perception is the tendency for an
individual to interpret what he sees, reads, or hears in a way which supports
his own viewpoint.

retrieval, retention and recall
These refer to a tendency to recall things on a selective basis. It would mean
that elements, which fit in with one’s own point of view, are remembered. All
of the above ideas on selectivity refer to trends in the processing of informa-
tion received via mass communication. In effect they are very similar despite
their obvious differences. They all imply that the response to mass media is
an active and manipulative process. But it is likely that activity is far from
being a complete explanation of the failures of the mass media to affect the
audience. The failure to absorb a great deal of information from the mass
media is more likely to be because the news is of very minimal interest or
because there is simply too much information to cope with. Although there
is good evidence of certain amount of selectivity, care is needed to avoid the
glib assumption that it applies to every case where a viewer or reader fails to
be affected by mass communication.

The principle of selective perception
A second underlying principle operates in much the same manner. Because
of differences in such cognitive factors as interests, beliefs, prior knowledge,

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