Viral video advertisements : uses and gratifications research

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on September 12, 2012).The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file.Thesis advisor: Mike McKeanIncludes bibliographical references.M.A. University of Missouri--Columbia 2012."May 2012"This research seeks to ascertain the uses and gratifications achieved by their choice to disseminate video advertisements that they view on the internet, allowing the advertisement to spread in a viral nature. The goal is to determine what gratifications are popular among college-aged individuals and how those gratifications change depending on the type of video as well as the content. The research is completed through a series of three small group sessions and an online questionnaire made available through the questions feature on Facebook. Upon examination of the data, it becomes clear that both young men and women in the age demographic targeted by this research seek to spread these videos in order to interact socially online with their friends and potentially provide their friends with humor. Women also showed a higher sense of concern for how spreading a video would affect their reputations than did men