1. âSaving Live TVâ?Watching television with Twitter Ruth A. Deller, Sheffield Hallam University, UK r.a.deller@shu.ac.uk, @ruthdeller @RadShef
2. Introduction Twitter as âsecond screenâ for talking TV The importance of being âliveâ Not really about fandom! What is Twitter? 140 character remarks âFollowingâ #hashtags: labels for following topics Trending topics: Top ten @mentions: references to other accounts RTs/retweets: recirculated messages / âquotesâ
3. Introduction From âmicro-bloggingâ to âreal-timeâ; from âwhat are you doing?â to âwhatâs happening?â Media and Twitter âintegrationâ Use of Twitter by media organisations, professionals and âcelebritiesâ Twitterâs raised profile due to ânewsworthinessâ (Deller 2011)
5. âLivenessâ âLivenessâ that is, live transmission â guarantees a potential connection to our shared social realities as they are happeningâŠ'Liveness' naturalises the idea that, through the media, we achieve a shared attention to the realities that matter for us as a society. This is the idea of the media as social frame, the myth of the mediated centre. It is because of this underlying idea (suggesting society as a common space focused around a âsharedâ ritual centre) that watching something âliveâ makes the difference it does: otherwise why should we care that others are watching the same image as us, and (more or less) when we are?â (Couldry, 2003: 97-99)
6. âLivenessâ âMaximum Livenessâ= 'we are watching at the same time as the event, at the same time as everyone else, and, what is more, with an event taking place in different locations connected by television, as is typically the case with major media events' (Bourdon 2000: 534-535). Peak traffic around âeventsâ (news, sport, reality finals, telethons etc)
7. âLivenessâ âThe invention of real-time social networking sites (this means Twitter) has added a whole new dimension to the enjoyment of Big Brother... now you can hold a conversation with anyone you want while itâs on and enjoy real-time tweeted commentary from celebs, pundits and randoms. Or, indeed, be one such commentatorâ. (Longridge 2010: 146).
8. A sense of presence Twitter âexaggerates âpresentismâ⊠a continued imagined consciousness of a shared temporal dimensionâ (Gruzd, Wellman and Takhteyev, forthcoming:9). âToo tired for Newswipe. Have to iPlayer it. Off to bed with a hot water bottleâ. âBand practice means late home. Going to miss the start of #TBOCâ
10. What kinds of programmes? Everything! Not always the obvious âtrendâ Smaller channels News and sport big hitters Factual genres Media âeventsâ
14. âPerilsâ of liveness Spoilers Which channel to watch Regulating hashtags (is it #strictly #scd #bbcstrictly or #strictlycomedancing ?) Global confusion (e.g. Big Brother, Masterchef)
15. Conclusion Twitter as âsecond screenâ viewing Enhanced âlivenessâ and âpresenceâ Performing as a âcommentatorâ Role of âindustryâ Style of âofficialâ accounts: humour/formal RTs and recirculation via âofficialâ accounts Connection to other media/individual accounts âOfficialâ hashtags New modes of interaction or simply the new âphone-inâ?
17. References Gruzd, Anatoliy, Wellman, Barry and Takhteyev, Yuri (forthcoming), âImagining Twitter as an Imagined Communityâ, to appear in the American Behavioral Scientist. Jenkins, Henry (2009), âThe message of Twitter: âHere is isâ and âHere I amâ, Confessions of an Aca-Fan, http://henryjenkins.org/2009/08/the_message_of_Twitter.html Mapping Online Publics, http://www.mappingonlinepublics.net/ Wakefield, Jane (2011), âTweeting with the telly onâ BBC News, 23 March, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12809388