Live-Tweeting: Communication Practices On Twitter While Watching Television

Live-Tweeting: Communication Practices on Twitter While Watching Television

Paula Marie Celine M. Molina
Ateneo de Manila University
1. Introduction
1.1 Fandoms
With the rising number of television shows, books (normally book-series), and
movies, fan culture is a very loud and evident portion on the Internet. Fandoms,
fanfictions (stories written about particular fandoms by fans) and fanblogs (particularly
those found on tumblr, a microblogging and social networking website) have become a
well-connected global village capable of coordinated and immediate worldwide contact
(Wiatrosky, 2010). The concept of fan culture has been around for quite some time; for
example, the first noted works of fanfiction were the Bronte sisters fantasy adventures
about Arthur Wellesly the first duke of Wellington (British Library, 2011). It is the
presence of the Internet, however, that made fan culture flourish and grow.
Fans are a collective of people organized socially around their shared
appreciation of a pop culture object or objects (Baym, 2007). A fandom is the state or
attitude of being a fan, whether in sports, television, film or books (Merriam-Webster,
2013). Fans create a fan culture with its own systems of production and distribution that
forms a shadow cultural economy that lies outside that of the cultural industries yet
shares features with them (Fiske, 1992). Prior to the rise of the Internet, fans would
often meet up at conventions, and fan clubs and interactions would either be face-toface or through written communication. These days, however, the Internet is home to
countless fandoms like Game of Thrones, Supernatural and Doctor Who on websites
like Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.
1.2 Social TV
Internet-based communication allows users to come together over a wide variety
of topics and interests, in addition to overcoming geographical distance (Baym, 2007).
Fandom is also associated with the cultural tastes of subordinated formations of the
people, particularly with those disempowered by any combination of gender, age, class
and race (Fiske, 1992, p.30). This means that fandoms arise from cultural practices of
the non-mainstream group of people and that the need to be social is a high priority. The
need to be social in fan activity stems years back. What used to be printed on fanzines
(fan magazines) turned to electronic fan texts. Soon, carefully maintained archives were
created for the ease of the readers (Santilli, 42.). There is certain exhilaration in being
able to share with another person ones thoughts and emotions about a book, film or
television show. Fan activity gives people the opportunity to do just that and a popular
form of fan activity would be the live-tweeting.
The term social TV is the merging [of] television and social media
technologies (Buschow, Schneider, & Ueberheide, 2014). With this merge, viewers can
now come back to a linear form of watching television, a medium that currently has an
array of new alternatives like Internet TV which can be paused, fast-forwarded and
rewound, as they are driven by a real-time parallel communication in social networking
sites (Buschow, Schneider, & Ueberheide, 2014).Live-tweeting, or the commenting of
live events through sending Tweets, is a manifestation of social TV. This method of
communication is transforming television from a lean-back medium (Dewdney & Ride,
2006) to an active medium (Buschow, Schneider, & Ueberheide, 2014).
1.3 Twitter
The emergence of Twitter in 2006 has brought forth a different way for the public
to communicate with one another. Exceeded only by Facebook, Twitter is currently the
worlds second most important social media platform (Bruns, 2011, p. 1), with more
than 300 million Tweets being sent every day. Using only 140 characters, a minimum
amount for todays wordy population, Twitter changes the way the public expresses
themselves. In contrast to several other social networking sites, Twitters use of
following need not be reciprocal. While Facebook demands that both parties accept
the Friend Request, Twitter users have the capability to read the messages, or
Tweets posted by other users without the need to be followed by said users
(Larsson, 2013). Communication on Twitter can be done in at least three ways. First,
there are the undirected messages, or Tweets with no specified recipient. Second, there
are the direct messages, making use of the character @ to mention another user.
Lastly, there are the Retweets, or the redistribution of another users Tweets. Most of
these Tweets are accompanied by hashtags (ex. #example) which enable users to link
messages for a coherent, threaded thematic list (Farhi, 2009). The hashtag option
enables users to identify the topic of a Tweet, especially if they are Tweeting about a
particular television show. In many ways, Twitter has become the main venue for selfexpression, with its users avidly typing and posting their everyday activities on it. It is in
this sense that Twitter is also a micro-blogging website. These activities often include
the users watching of television shows.
Twitter has the quality to provide audience engagement, a term redefined by
Henry Jenkins brought forth in 2006 and this engagement may provide television
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networks with loyal and sustainable viewers. The parasocial interaction or

relationships wherein one party knows more about the other while the other does not
(Horton &Wohl, 1956), between the television networks and viewers that Twitter
provides can benefit both parties. Jenkins (2006) mentions that by expanding
consumer/viewer investments through new marketing strategies, networks and
advertisers are able to reap the benefits of collective intelligence while allowing
audiences to shape the nature of what it is they are consuming/viewing (p. 63).
1.4 Series and Audiences
This paper will focus specifically on the three television series (Game of Thrones,
Supernatural and Doctor Who) because of the popularity of their latest seasons as well
as their strong presence on Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr.Game of Thrones is an
American fantasy drama series on HBO. It is an adaptation of George R.R. Martins
series, A Song of Fire and Ice. Its first season had a total of 25.15 million views and its
latest (the fourth season of the series) season garnered a whopping estimated 54.86
million US views (these are the views during the first airing of the show every Sunday at
9pm in the United States) (Kissel, 2014). Supernatural, on the other hand, is a mystery
adventure series aired on The CW. Its ninth season brought with it 2.19 million viewers
and the series has created a spinoff series entitled Supernatural: The Animated Series.
Described as a cult series, Supernatural has acquired an incredibly dedicated fanbase.
They are some of the most active users on Tumblr, and have created a massive number
of fanfiction. Fan conventions have also been held specifically for the Supernatural
series. Doctor Who is the longest running series among the three shows that this paper
will be focusing on. In 2013, the series celebrated its 50 th anniversary. Its latest serial,
series eight, garnered an average of 7.44 million viewers per episode.
The study will focus on teen/young adult audiences. This would include persons
whose ages range from 14 to 19. The reason behind this is that an approximated 35%
of Twitter users are teenagers and young adults, a large difference from the 89% of
Facebook users belonging to the same age range (Lenhart, Purcell, Smith, & Zickhur
2010).
2. Review of Related Literature
This segment seeks to view how Twitter has been used in relation to television,
or television-related topics like celebrities. Few research has been done on this topic as
Twitter is still a relatively new form of social media and social TV has not yet been
properly explored.
2.1 Twitter and Celebrities
The emergence of Twitter brought with it an entirely new way for celebrities to
communicate with their fans and vice-versa. Fan letters were a tedious and effort-filled
task and meet-and-greets took a while to plan for, and were tiring both for the celebrities
and fans. Twitter showed to be an excellent compromise for both parties. The fans could
follow their favorite stars without having the need for said stars to follow them back.
Twitter also provided protection for celebrities, allowing them to block obsessive fans
and haters if needed. While celebrities used Twitter like non-celebrities did (peermessaging and public dissemination of information), its most interesting quality would
be the parasocial interaction it provided (Stever & Lawson, 2013). Stever and Lawsons
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(2013) study discussed how celebrities communicated with their fans on Twitter without
a marketing intent. It focused on celebrities like Josh Groban, Lady Gaga and Katy
Perry, analyzing the content of majority of their Tweets. The study showed the power
celebrities had over their fans in this form of interaction, that the relationships formed do
not necessarily have the give-and-take aspect. And while this is not the fault of the
celebrities, the fans do feel cheated with their lack of control. The study did not gather
tweets wherein users did not mention the Twitter name of the celebrity (e.g.,
@EmWatson), and simply mentioned the celebritys name in their message. It also did
not study the Twitter accounts of the celebrities with the most number of followers (e.g.,
Justin Bieber and One Direction members), who also have the largest reach in the
Twitterverse (Twitter Universe).
Bennett (2013) focuses on the Twitter practices of celebrities, and briefly
provides Lady Gaga as an example. According to Bennet (2013), Lady Gaga uses
Twitter to combine the public and private elements of her personality, as well as to
communicate directly to her fans as fellow partners, and they are positioned as making
vital contributions to her work (p.132). It also poses the possibility of a strong feeling of
inclusion of certain fans, despite the parasocial interaction that they are faced with.
Since the paper did not particularly focus on this feeling of inclusion of online fandom,
generalizations cannot be made.
2.2 Twitter and Television
Majority of studies about Twitter focus on its use in terms of news and current
affairs.Larsson (2013) studied how the Swedish talk show, Hbinette, made use of
Twitter as a tool for its viewers to have an online experience of the broadcast. It
analyzed of real-time communication, meaning Tweets sent while the show was being
aired. The study saw the benefits of the hashtag and used it to gather all the tweets
relating to the talk show with the #hbinette hashtag and limiting these tweets to those
sent within a time period. The data gathered showed that singleton tweets, or
undirected tweets were the most popular while direct messages were the least and that
four out of ten users identified themselves as journalists. Majority of the tweets were
those sent by the host of the show. The study, however, only covered Tweets sent with
the hashtag #hbinette but did not include Tweets about the talk show without the
aforementioned hasthag, limiting the data gathered. And as it is about one specific talk
show that is only aired in Sweden, the results it has posed cannot be used as a
generalization. Despite its description of it being a study about the use of Twitter in
journalism, as the talk shows guests range from government officials to celebrities, it
cannot be said that the article focused solely on the journalistic side of the show.
Wood and Baughman (2012) tackled the use of Twitter as a venue for roleplaying in the context of the Glee fandom. Role-playing is the intentional fan-narrative
creation and interaction for the purpose of transmedia storytelling on Twitter (Wood &
Baughman, 2012, p.333). While there are several role-playing accounts available online
(e.g. Tumblr, Facebook), majority of Twitter users still choose to react using their
personal accounts. The study does, however, present the importance of the connection
of fans with other fans, and not necessarily to their peers or to the general public. It also
analyses tweets made in real time as the shows are shown on air. The end result
discussed the unintentional marketing that the role-playing accounts have, an aspect
that will not be discussed in this study.
Buschow, Schneider and Ueberheides 2014 This paper will make use of the
same framework and categories but will have a more particular focus with regard to the
audience to be studied as well as the television series they are Tweeting about (as
mentioned in section 1.4). Since the study also makes use of consciously selected
German programs, general conclusions and theories cannot be made about the practice
of television Tweeting. Following Buschow, Schneider and Ueberheide, this research
will categorize Twitter communication activities in terms of (1) evaluation of shows and
actors, (2) emotions, (3) abstractions (association of television content with the users
life or the society s/he is in), and (4) connecting with the community. Identified as one of
the most common communication activities, the evaluation of shows and actors
comprised 24% of Tweets compiled in Schneider and Ueberheids research while
emotions comprising 4%, abstractions with 5% and connecting with the community with
49%. This paper would, however, add a fifth category: connecting with celebrities as
well as restricting the fourth term, connecting with the community, to members of the
particular fandoms and not simply towards the public or to peers.
3. Framework
The research will make use of Rosengrens uses and gratifications theory which
attempts to explain the uses and functions of the media (in this case, television and
Twitter) for society. Uses and gratifications has three objectives: 1) to explain how
individuals use mass communication to gratify their needs (for this paper, this will be the
Twitter communication activities), to discover underlying motives for media use and 3) to
identify positive and negative consequences of media use (Ruggiero, 2000).
4. Research Question and Parameters

With social TV having been presented as a phenomenon, Twitter as a platform
for audience engagement, Game of Thrones, Supernatural and Doctor Who presented
as the series chosen for analysis and viewers restricted to those ranging from fourteen
to nineteen, the research will attempt to address the research question:
How do young adult viewers of Game of Thrones, Supernatural and Doctor Who
use Twitter to supplement or enhance their TV viewing experience?
The aforementioned question will be supplemented by five sub-questions (the
first four taken once again from the 2014 study by Buschow, Schneider and
Ueberheide) which aim to answer the relevance of the evaluations of shows and actors,
the emotions, abstractions, connections to the community and connections with
celebrities?
The Tweets that the paper will be analyzing are those that are made while the
audiences are viewing the select television series, and not before or after these shows
have been viewed.
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