The gratification of psychological needs through teleshopping

Abstract

Teleshopping has become a stable feature of Maltese television since its introduction in the mid-1990s. Paradoxically, this happened in spite of the fact that the compactness of the Maltese islands results in shops being everywhere within easy reach. The initial hypothesis guiding this research was that television programmes must be performing some role besides their overt marketing function. The aim of this study was to identify the psychological needs which teleshopping gratifies in Maltese viewers by adopting the uses and gratifications framework. Taking a quantitative approach, a survey was conducted with 150 teleshopping viewers and the items on the questionnaire were subjected to factor analysis. Four factors were extracted. These were: (i) Psychological well-being; (ii) Pleasure; (iii) Respite; and (iv) Escape. The first two factors offer a positive gratification of needs while the latter two serve a protective function, buffering viewers from negative stimuli. These results emphasize the primacy of the emerging virtual community through this genre which largely support findings of other research in the field (such as Bucholtz, 1999; Grant, Guthrie & Ball-Rokeach, 1991; Skumanich & Kinstfather, 1998; White, 1992). Thus the paradox noted with regards to the rising popularity of the teleshopping genre within the Maltese context is at least partially explained. The fulfilment offered through teleshopping is not simply related to the acquisition of goods but this genre is acknowledged to possess unintended and subtle gratification of psychological needs.