Competition for the attention of consumers is at an all-time high as the Internet joins the traditional mass media in providing information, entertainment, and news. Television and the Internet pose real challenges to other alternative mediThis dissertation aims at examining the consumption of media, particularly television and the Internet, among Saudi users. A theoretical foundation to understanding the Saudis' use of media is provided by media system dependency theory (MSD). According to MSD, individuals turn to the media for social and emotional support when confronted with the dispersed social structures and lack of communication between people in modern societies, even among close neighbors. The theory attempts to understand the relationships between media and the public. This study analyzed religiosity and its effect on the dependency people establish with television programming. The credibility of television and its relation to the attainment of social understanding dependency was investigated and analyzed as well. Moreover, threat factor was examined to determine its impacts on the type of dependency people develop with the mediFinally, this project explores the usage of the Internet among Saudis, mainly to determine the types of dependencies they are developing with this new communication technology. A self-administered questionnaire was conducted on 1070 individuals in three cities (Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dammam) in Saudi ArabiNine hundred and eighteen questionnaires were completed yielding an overall response rate of 86%. While the religiosity of participants significantly predicted the attainment of the self-understanding goal, it failed to anticipate the attainment of social understanding. Further, the results showed participants who spent more time watching television were seeking to achieve a play goal dependency relation. Canonical correlation analysis led to the belief that Saudi people concerned about the influence of satellite television channels were inclined to watch television programs to attain play, orientation or social-understanding goals. Finally, regression analysis clearly showed that socioeconomic status was not a significant predictor of achieving the social understanding dependency goal with television. Almost no correlation was found between social-understanding and the socioeconomic status of participants