本研究的目的為調查臺灣地區佛教信眾的電視宗教頻道收視行為，利用問卷調查的方式，了解臺灣地區的佛教信眾使用電視宗教頻道的「動機與滿足感」，並探討佛教信眾於社會情境下所衍生的「社會互動性媒體使用與滿足」狀況，以及分析佛教信眾使用宗教電視頻道的涉入感程度。 研究結果發現：佛教信眾使用電視宗教頻道的動機與滿足感，以及社會互動性媒體使用動機與滿足感，經過統計數據分析後皆呈現顯著相關，印證了過去「使用與滿足」理論。在「使用與滿足」的題組中，臺灣地區佛教信眾皆偏重「資訊需求」的動機面向，而「社會互動性媒體使用與滿足」題組中，則是偏重「心靈安定需求」動機面向。 綜合所有關於「生活型態」的分析，可以發現「媒體使用動機」與「社會互動性媒體使用動機」強烈的的佛教信眾輪廓為：年齡約40歲以上，教育程度約在高中以下，多半從事傳統的農、林、漁、牧、礦產業工作，家庭中多半已有子女，會分配較多時間參與佛教活動。 The purpose of this research is to understand Taiwan’s Buddhists’ behavior of watching religious television programs. Integrating “Uses and Gratifications Model”, proposed by Palmgreen et al. in 1985, with definitions of “Life Style” given by Plummer in 1974, the researcher surveyed 325 Buddhists to probe their religious media use behavior and the possible inter-relationship between media use motives and gratifications, if any. Another main goal is to profile the characteristics of the religious audience by contrasting their beneficent behavior with media use habits. The positive correlations were found between Buddhists’ religious media uses and gratifications. While watching all kinds of religious programs, these Buddhists seemed to seek for life information more than for entertainment. They also tended to utilize the religious channels for the purpose of personal spiritual peace, rather than parasocial interactions. In this study, most Buddhists, who reportedly had intense motives of watching religious television programs were engaged in the traditional industries such as farming, forestry, fishing, forestry, and mining and aged over 40. More important, they devote much time to the charitable activities sponsored by various Buddhistic organizations.
