Poster Presentation for 11 X 17

8
#Watercooler: An Examination of the Active Audience And Television Program Viewing Ingrid Napoletano University of Hartford Abstract This literature review examines the ‘second screen’ phenomena and its impact on the active audience and television program content. This analysis includes a review of international studies examining the use of personal computing devices to communicate via Twitter while viewing television programs. This research examines the content of the Twitter conversations during the airing of television programs, the relationships developed among the conversation participants, and the influence these conversations have on the participants and the television programs’ content. The second screen phenomenon introduces a new platform for the social audience. This research is socially significant because the findings detail how the interactions of the viewing audience, including the level and content of interactions online, may influence the television programs’ successes or failures. The second screen offers a new manner in which to examine audience participation in television viewing. The results of the studies in this literature review suggest that understanding the relationships developed by the members of the active audience and the topics of interest can help guide television program producers to increase the odds of their programs’ success. The research by Quintas-Froufe & Gonzalez-Neira (2014) found a positive relationship between the level of Twitter activity between the active audience and talent show judges and host. Another study by Giglietto & Selva (2014) research found that Twitter was most often used to discuss personal opinions during talk shows and political opinions during political talk shows. Cameron & Geidner (2014)’s research found a positive correlation between the Twitter feed comments and audience members conforming to the majority opinion regarding singers in a talent contest and politicians during a political debate. The research by Buschow, Schneider, and Ueberheide (2014) found that different television programs produce different types of activities and for creation of specific online communities. One possible limitation of the research reviewed is that it limited its scope to discussions occurring during televisions that are specific to the television program being viewed. The audience members could be multi-tasking and

Transcript of Poster Presentation for 11 X 17

Page 1: Poster Presentation for 11 X 17

#Watercooler: An Examination of the Active AudienceAnd Television Program Viewing

Ingrid Napoletano

University of Hartford

Abstract This literature review examines the ‘second screen’ phenomena and its impact on the active audience and television program content. This analysis includes a review of international studies examining the use of personal computing devices to communicate via Twitter while viewing television programs. This research examines the content of the Twitter conversations during the airing of television programs, the relationships developed among the conversation participants, and the influence these conversations have on the participants and the television programs’ content.

The second screen phenomenon introduces a new platform for the social audience. This research is socially significant because the findings detail how the interactions of the viewing audience, including the level and content of interactions online, may influence the television programs’ successes or failures. The second screen offers a new manner in which to examine audience participation in television viewing. The results of the studies in this literature review suggest that understanding the relationships developed by the members of the active audience and the topics of interest can help guide television program producers to increase the odds of their programs’ success.

The research by Quintas-Froufe & Gonzalez-Neira (2014) found a positive relationship between the level of Twitter activity between the active audience and talent show judges and host. Another study by Giglietto & Selva (2014) research found that Twitter was most often used to discuss personal opinions during talk shows and political opinions during political talk shows. Cameron & Geidner (2014)’s research found a positive correlation between the Twitter feed comments and audience members conforming to the majority opinion regarding singers in a talent contest and politicians during a political debate. The research by Buschow, Schneider, and Ueberheide (2014) found that different television programs produce different types of activities and for creation of specific online communities. One possible limitation of the research reviewed is that it limited its scope to discussions occurring during televisions that are specific to the television program being viewed. The audience members could be multi-tasking and discussing the television program part of the time and discussing other topics and performing other tasks during the viewing of the television program too. It might be interesting to understand what the audiences are doing online during their television viewing.

Keywords: active audience, social audience, second screen

Page 2: Poster Presentation for 11 X 17

Active Audience

Collective Action Media Producers & Distributers

Interpretation

We do not interpret messages in a vacuum. Audience members engage with media socially. The conversation avenue has expanded beyond the office watercooler to whoever wants to participate in the discussion with the introduction of social media tools like Facebook and Twitter. Audience members may be physically alone while viewing a television program but can participate in a real-time discussion about the television program. This concept is referred as the second screen phenomena or social TV (Croteau & Hoynes, 2014)

Social Context of Interpretation

Page 3: Poster Presentation for 11 X 17

Active Audience Nielson reports that in

2013 43% of smart device owners reported second screen use while viewing

tv

Page 4: Poster Presentation for 11 X 17

Quintas-Froufe & Gonzalez-Neira (2014) study analyzed the Twitter comment feed during episodes of different kinds of talent shows while they aired in Spain in 2013. The results of this study found no direct correlation between the level of activity on Twitter and the television program’s success.

34% of Tweets during Prime Time in Spain are about TV

Page 5: Poster Presentation for 11 X 17

Giglietto & Selva (2014) performed a content analysis of peak Twitter activity between August 2012 and June 2013 in Italy. They used specific hashtags to perform searches and to categorize the data. They attempted to tie the data identified during the peak Twitter use to the scene of the television program that correlated to this peak.

The results showed there was a greater peak of opinion comments regarding politics during interviews and group discussions scenes in these political television programs but there was not enough data to make a direct correlation.

Giglietto & Selva (2014) believe that their research data does support the presence of a relationship between the content of Twitter comments and the subgenre of the political television program’s scene.

Page 6: Poster Presentation for 11 X 17

Buschow, Schneider, & Ueberheide (2014) performed a quantitative content analysis of Twitter comments that occurred during television programs aired between January and April 2012 in Germany. They categorized the content into four main categories . They used hashtags to identify relevant data. They were interested in understanding what communication activities Twitter users engaged in while watching TV, if the communication activities were relevant, and if different television programs influence the communication activities of Twitter users.

24% of the Tweets were evaluating the show or the actors. 54% of the tweets were connecting with the community.

4% of the tweets explicitly referenced an emotion.5% that contained personal or societal abstraction.

The results show that the communication activities performed by Twitter users while watching television are most frequently unrelated to

the television content. When the content is related to the television content, it tends to vary depending on the specific television program

with reality television programs generating the most content.

Page 7: Poster Presentation for 11 X 17

Cameron & Geidner (2014) performed quantitative experiments in the United states in 2013 to examined if public opinion displayed on screen produced conformity during singing contents and political speeches . They performed two experiments to evaluate if individuals exposed to a Twitter feed will conform to the majority opinion when judging the quality and success of the singers or politician.

Study participants were asked one question on their opinion of the singer and one question on the likelihood of the singer winning American Idol.

Study participants were asked their opinion regarding the performance of the speaker. Then, they were asked two questions regarding the participant’s perceived success of the speaker. One question was to determine if they believed the speaker could ‘convince people to support their argument’ and one question was to determine if the speaker convinced them to support the speaker’s argument (Cameron & Giedner, 2014, p.410).

The results of the American Idol study suggest that participants were

influenced by the twitter messages and conformed to the majority

opinion.The results of conformity study suggest that participants

were influenced by the twitter messages and conformed to the majority opinion regarding the quality of the

politician’s speech and whether the participants believed the politician’s speech could convince others to support

their argument.

The final question was split. The results showed that positive condition associated with the Violence Against

Women Act did find a conformity effect whereas it was not present with the topic opposing additional gun

regulations. The authors suggest that a topic like gun control may be too engrained to be influenced by CRM.

Page 8: Poster Presentation for 11 X 17

The studies did not show any evidence of the third active audience activity discussed by Croteau & Hoynes (2014), collective action. This is likely due to the types of television programs selected for examination in these studies.

These studies can provide insight on how the second screen plays an important role in bringing the social audience together while watching

television.

In addition to understanding this information from the television producer’s perspective, it is also interesting insight as to what is important

to society. The three studies done in European countries suggest that there is a lot of interest discussing politics.

The studies by Quantas-Froufe & Gonzalez-Neira (2014) and Cameron & Geidner (2014) align with one of the activities of the active audiences

discussed by Croteau & Hoynes (2014), the individual’s interpretation of media products.

Giglietto & Selva (2014) and Buschow, Schneider, & Ueberheide’s (2014) research align with another audience activity of the active audience

discussed by Croteau and Hoynes (2014), the social context of interpretation.

Although all of the studies in this literature review could be associated to a third active audience activity discussed by Croteau & Hoynes (2014),

audiences as media producers, Cameron & Geidner’s (2014) research took it a step further to show how much influence audience as media producers

can have over professionally produced media.

Interpretation

Findings and Conclusions

Media Producers & Distributers

Social Context of Interpretation Collective Action

It appears the members of the audience are impacted by what their peers are saying. It also appears that certain television programs, like talent

shows, illicit a flurry of activity about the show and its participants, whereas with political talk shows, interviews and group discussions spur the most conversations as people scramble to offer their opinions on the

guests and the subject matter.