Le modèle des usages et gratifications appliqué à Internet et la télévision interactive

Internet has opened new roads to inform and entertain individuals. In the 1970s, the development of television deeply revolutionized domestic life but compared with the Internet, it seems not to be so dramatic. This paper focuses on interactive television as an attractive new media in comparison with the Internet. The research reported in this paper departs from the “uses and gratifications” theory of Blumler and Katz (1974). This theory suggests that users of a media play an active role by choosing and using this media. This theory was used by Eighmey and McCord (1998), Korgaonkar and Wolin (1999) and Dandouau (2001) to identify motives of raising value when using an interactive media, particularly when visiting Internet sites. An exploratory qualitative methodology was adopted to test media television. We organized forty interviews in situ and participants manipulated interactive TV programs. Results show that we can find common gratifications and worries between Internet and television. But new worries emerged on interactive TV, linked with attention to the screen and reading texts on television.