Practitioners of the uses and gratifications theory study the ways the public consumes media. This theory states that consumers use the media to satisfy specific needs or desires. For example, you may enjoy watching a show like Dancing With the Stars while simultaneously tweeting about it on Twitter with your friends. Many people use the Internet to seek out entertainment, to find information, to communicate with like-minded individuals, or to pursue self-expression.
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In the scenario above where effects of carbon and nitrogen are associated with plants’ root structures, data would consist of measurements associated with the roots. For example, the length of roots produced by each plant, or the number of ‘shoots’ branching from each root are two different sets of quantitative data. Quantitative data is usually defined as numerical information, generated or collected through measurements conducted by humans or mediated through devices (computers, microscopes, scales, etc.)
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The audience for this piece would be other researchers interested in plant ecology. In this paper, the researcher could focus on the data and results, emphasizing how varying levels of carbon and nitrogen differently influence plant root length and structure. Because of her audience (other ecologists) and purpose (communicating her results), the researcher doesn’t need to explain the significance of her findings in the same way she would if, for example, she was explaining her results to the public. The same study, written to appear in Popular Science, would need to explain why it matters that carbon and nitrogen differently influence plant root length and structure. The researcher might, for example, hypothesize that overuse of synthetic, nitrogen-based fertilizers on agricultural plants, such as carrots, could reduce the size or density of the crop yield.
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