A Cross-National Study of Newspaper Reading Patterns in the United States and Korea: An Analysis Based on the Uses and Gratifications Construct

Abstract

This study examines the ability of the uses and gratifications construct to explain the motivations (gratifications sought) and the satisfactions (gratifications obtained) of college students' newspaper reading. This study also explores similarities and differences between U.S. and Korean college students' newspaper-reading behavior. One major finding is that Korean students spend more time reading newspapers than do Americans. The findings of this study support the existence of at least three distinct dimensions of gratifications sought in the Korean sample: interaction utility, information seeking, and diversion factor. In the U.S. sample, on the other hand, there were four distinct dimensions of gratifications sought: information-seeking, interaction utility, decisional utility, and diversion. This study concludes that the gratifications sought factors of the two countries are highly similar although not completely identical.