Displacement Theory
This week’s topic is all about Displacement Theory and Uses and Gratifications Theory. Within these two theories, there is a commonality between them because they focus on the audience or individual to pick media channels that best fit them. Displacement Theory is about how “media consumption will displace some other activity or activities” (Bryant and Fondren). Uses and Gratifications Theory focuses on media use and how individuals pick and choose which media they want to consume based on what they prefer. In today’s blog, I will mostly be talking about Displacement Theory.
Before reading about Displacement Theory I was not familiar with this concept or what it meant in the realm of communication. After learning about what it means and the different principles of this Theory, I was able to make some connections from what I learned and how it applies to my everyday life. For instance, when I was younger I didn’t grow up with a lot of the technology we have today and so my form of entertainment was playing with my Littlest
Pet Shop toys or Bratz dolls with my sister since that is what we had, but when my parents bought me a Nintendo D.S, I replaced my physical toys to virtual ones by playing Littlest Pet Shop games, Sims, and Cooking Mama to fill my time.
The artifact that I selected this week correlates with the “functional similarity” principle of this theory and that is media streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, and so on. The reason why I selected this is that our reading defines “functional similarity” as “If two media perform the same function, the medium that best satisfies the given need typically will be selected” (Bryant and Fondren). With so many companies creating their own streaming services to keep up with the competition it allows the audience to have the ability to pick and choose what they want to watch. Let’s say if someone really wants to watch a show but it’s only available on Hulu and they have Netflix, then that person will be more inclined to displace Netflix for Hulu as their current streaming service because it satisfies that viewer. This could also be applied to another principle such as “Marginal Fringe Activities” because, in reality, a majority of Americans own more than one streaming service and so by having access to hundreds of different kinds of TV and movies we are more inclined to watch them and be replaced by doing other tasks such as cleaning or homework.
According to CommunicationTheory.org, they make a good analogy to help better understand this concept. The author mentions that Displacement Theory is like a cycle, “The human mind unconsciously finds itself a solution for the problem which causes the stress and to alleviate the situation the displacement occurs to a situation or to an entity which can be of little or no relevance.” Comparing this theory to a cycle makes perfect sense because when you think about it, once we are exposed to something that is more interesting to us we replace what we had before with what is new. Relating this back to streaming services, once someone sees a better selection of shows that person will replace their usual service with a new one that satisfies their current needs.
I really enjoyed reading and learning about Displacement Theory this week because it is something we do all time whether we know it or not. I feel like many of us are subjective to wanting what is new due to how the media portrays that item or topic. We see this all the time when new products come out or coming across a new brand that sparks our attention to replace what we currently have. This is one of the few times where I feel confident in saying that this theory will never go outdated and can be applied to many other subjects not just streaming services.
Bryant, J., & Fondren, W. (n.d.). Displacement Effects.
In Psychology, B. (2014, July 07). Displacement effect theory. Retrieved April 20, 2021, from https://www.communicationtheory.org/displacement-effect-theory/
