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The ‘uses and gratifications'approach is quintessential in media research and, at the same time, highly topical. Our need for communication is universal and unique, but expectations of what the media offers change as the media itself changes. If one wants to understand this more precisely, one cannot avoid the uses and gratifications approach. This book provides a well-founded overview of this quintessential theory of media use, explain-ing it using examples and empirical findings, and showing how topical it is in the digital age. It pays particular attention to the many important contributions of German-language research to the approach. As an introduction to theory, it is aimed at students and, at the same time, serves as a reference book for anyone who wants to understand media use according to needs more precisely. Its author has been researching and teaching the subjective significance of the media in everyday life and its effects at various universities for many years.