the tweeting broadcaster: sbs and social media audience engagement
DESCRIPTION
Paper presented at ANZCA, Melbourne, July 2014.TRANSCRIPT
e tweeting broadcaster: SBS and social media audience engagement
Tim High!eld QUT + Curtin
[email protected] | timhigh!eld.net | @timhigh!eld
Background
• Tracking hashtags around Eurovision and the Tour de France, 2012-‐‑2014 – See:
• Highfield, Harrington, & Bruns (2013). TwiGer as a technology of audiencing and fandom: The #eurovision phenomenon. Information, Communication & Society, 16(3), 315-‐‑339. • Highfield (2013). Following the yellow jersey: Tweeting the Tour de France. Twi5er and Society (eds. Weller et al.), 249-‐‑261.
The twist
• Rather than the event-‐‑wide hashtags, concentrating here on broadcaster-‐‑specific hashtags – SBS:
• #sbseurovision • #sbstdf
– Other broadcasters covering same events may use their own specific hashtags, in addition to the global #eurovision, #esc, #tdf, #letour…
Reasoning
• Using unique hashtags can enable a concentration or centralisation of the broadcaster’s audience – Separates viewers from those watching other broadcasters, provides common context and allows for additional content for broadcast
– In the case of Eurovision, #sbseurovision is a channel for Australians unsullied by spoilers (since delayed telecast), unlike #eurovision
Questions
• To what extent might broadcaster-‐‑specific hashtags foster conversation around the shared experience of watching televised programming?
• How do such conventions, and their outcomes, impact upon the relationships between audiences and broadcasters on social media?
Promotion
Methods yourTwapperKeeper -‐‑ queries TwiGer API for specified keywords
(including hashtags) -‐‑ subject to rate limiting and does not access
full TwiGer stream #sbseurovision and #sbstdf archived in 2012 and 2013 (and continued in 2014)
Results – #sbseurovision (SF1-‐‑final):
• 2012: 112,836 tweets from 20,418 users • 2013: 146,934 tweets from 18,828 users
– #sbstdf (first stage to final stage): • 2012: 39,115 tweets from 3,185 users • 2013: 46,202 tweets from 5,425 users
Results
0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 30000
2012-‐‑M
ay-‐‑25
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2012-‐‑M
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ay-‐‑28
#sbseurovision, tweets per hour (2012)
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2013-‐‑M
ay-‐‑17
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2013-‐‑M
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#sbseurovision, tweets per hour (2013)
Results
0
10000
20000
30000
40000
50000
2012-‐‑May-‐‑25 2012-‐‑May-‐‑26 2012-‐‑May-‐‑27
#sbseurovision, types of tweet (2012)
Sum of retweets
Sum of genuine @replies
Sum of original tweets
0 10000 20000 30000 40000 50000 60000 70000 80000
2013-‐‑May-‐‑17 2013-‐‑May-‐‑18 2013-‐‑May-‐‑19
#sbseurovision, types of tweet (2013)
Sum of retweets
Sum of genuine @replies
Sum of original tweets
Results
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000
#sbstdf, tweets per day (2012)
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500
#sbstdf, tweets per day (2013)
Results
0
1000
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5000
#sbstdf, types of tweet (2012)
Sum of retweets
Sum of genuine @replies
Sum of original tweets
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
#sbstdf, types of tweet (2013)
Sum of retweets
Sum of genuine @replies
Sum of original tweets
Results
SBS TwiGer strategies – Official accounts (programme and host) active during broadcasts and visible hooks for audience • Mentions of official accounts as signifiers for the people/shows themselves (in keeping with wider TwiGer practices)
– Promote hashtags not just for content in broadcast, but to strengthen communal feeling among audience • #sbstdf community in particular: dedicated audience with its own tropes (including tweeting at and with presenters)
Eurovision vs. TDF – Some crossover among audiences:
• 41,298 users contribute to the four datasets in total – 159 posted in all four, 486 in three of the four – Among users posting in all four are SBS personalities Mike Tomalaris and Sam Pang, and SBS News
– Different styles of audience tweeting • Interactivity, conversation?, and community (TDF) vs. isolated one-‐‑liners en masse (Eurovision) – with an aim to appear on-‐‑screen? • Impact of different types of event/programme on tweets?
SBS and the TwiGer audience • Interactions are based both around the text and the other people involved in the discussions – Fans respond to the conventions and tropes of the broadcasts of Eurovision and the Tour de France as well as the specific developments on screen.
– For both events, repetition of traits is an important part of the experience of these events, fostered by familiarity with the texts and encouraged by the broadcaster • Inspire increased dedication, centralisation, and text-‐‑specific fandom.
Beyond TwiGer – SBS’s trans-‐‑/social media strategies
• Online experience of broadcasts through Tour Social Hub • Apps • Podcasts, games, radio, blogs/op eds • In-‐‑broadcast social media extends beyond TwiGer to Instagram and Facebook (as promoted in 2014 Eurovision broadcast)
• Not strictly broadcasting (one-‐‑to-‐‑many) but more reflexive?
– TwiGer is a particularly visible medium, well-‐‑established as a backchannel and comparatively straightforward to collect data • However, it is not the only medium, and is not used in isolation
• Part of an extended experience around these events