A Social Cognitive Theory of Internet Uses and Gratifications: Toward a New Model of Media Attendance

Recent research explaining Internet usage has both extended and challenged the uses and gratifications approach to understanding media attendance by discovering new gratifications and introducing powerful new explanatory variables. The present research integrates these developments into a theory of media attendance within the framework of Bandura's (1 986) Social Cognitive Theory. Respondents from 2 Midwestern states were recruited by mail to complete an online questionnaire. Structural equation modeling techniques were used to test a. new model of media attendance in which active consideration of Internet uses and gratifications, moderated by Internet self-efficacy, joins habitual behavior and deficient self-regulation as determinants of media behavior. The model explained 42% of the variance in Internet usage.