Uses and Gratifications Theory in "How I Met Your Mother"

Special thanks to Marla Pachter for helping me get this you-tube clip up.


The above clip from CBS’s “How I Met Your Mother” is a prime example of Uses and Gratifications Theory, which asserts that people utilize media to satisfy specific needs. In this particular episode, the main characters had planned to watch the Super Bowl together, but then learned that they would have to attend a funeral on Super Bowl Sunday. The friends decide to “TiVo” the game, agreeing to go an entire day without finding out the score or the victor; this way they could all watch it together as if it was the first time. By the time the clip above takes place, everyone has found out the score except for Ted. Although Ted’s initial reaction is getting angry and saying that there is no point in watching the game, he and his friends eventually realize that their primary reason for watching it is to satisfy their need to spend time with each other.

Uses and Gratifications Theory has five key assumptions, four of which are exemplified by certain aspects in the clip above. The first assumption is that the audience is active, and that their media consumption is goal-oriented. In other words, individuals actively choose to use media to satisfy different needs. On “How I Met Your Mother,” Ted and his friends plan the Super Bowl party for affective needs (otherwise known as the desire for a pleasant or aesthetic experience) and social integrative needs (which deal with enhancing connections with family, friends, and so forth). Planning a party around watching a single piece of media shows that as audience members, these friends are actively planning to use media to satisfy these needs.

In addition to consuming media in a goal-oriented manner, the second assumption of Uses and Gratifications Theory states that audience members take the initiative in choosing which specific medium will meet those goals. That is, audience members with a certain goal may utilize different specific mediums to reach those goals. Since the clip from “How I Met Your Mother” focuses on the same medium, it can show how this assumption also works in reverse order: instead of using different media to satisfy a similar need as the assumption implies, Ted and Barney choose to use the same media to satisfy two different needs. Barney betting on the outcome of the game shows that he is using it to satisfy a personal integrative need, which deals with enhancing his credibility and status in the sports world. On the other hand, Ted’s main goal in watching the game is to fulfill a social integrative need, because he wants all of his friends to experience something together.

It is important to note that media and their audiences do not exist in a vacuum; both are part of a larger society that can influence the way audience members use the media. This is taken into account in the third assumption of Uses and Gratifications Theory, which states that media compete with other sources for need satisfaction. In the clip, it is obvious that all of the characters (except for Ted) have somehow found out the score of the game. Since the Super Bowl is such a widely-publicized event, reports of the scores were probably found all over the place – on billboard advertisements, in commercials, in the newspaper, on the news, etc. Therefore, it would have been very hard to rely solely on the “TiVo”-ed tape of the Super Bowl for the cognitive need of acquiring information. Despite this, the group in the clip could still use the taped game as the media type to fulfill their social integrative need of enhancing connections with friends.

The fourth and final assumption of Uses and Gratifications Theory that this clip exemplifies is that people have enough self-awareness of their media use, interests, and motives to provide researchers with an accurate picture of that use. This has the most impact in terms of the research methods used to investigate Uses and Gratifications, because the researchers believe that surveys and interviews of media consumers will provide reliable and accurate information. Ted illustrates this type of self-aware audience member in his recap at the end of the clip: “what I remember is that we ate wings, drank beer, and watched the Super Bowl together.” However, even though most media consumers know exactly why they are watching a particular type of media, or even know how it will end, they can still "enjoy the ride."