Abstract

Public television has a mission to promote debate around topics of public interest. Twitter is the social metamedia used by TV programs to fulfil this task online. This research analyzes the capability of public television to generate an effective debate through Twitter and also looks at the relationship between physical audience and social audience. We apply a quantitative methodology that employs our own capture and treatment technique to examine the activity generated by the hashtags proposed by six television programs on BBC One, TV3, and La 1. The main finding shows that these programs fail in their mission to generate a robust public debate in Twitter; instead the discussion is generated by a recurrent group of users that control the debate flow around their comments. Finally, the physical audience is not a predictive factor of the social audience.

Abstract

Today’s TV context is defined by new services like view-on-demand, “extra” content, and conversations with the audience. The public has more power to decide what to view and can influence the programming with their comments. Because of this, TV channels have created strategies to improve the online products and encourage public participation. Success also depends on social TV and VoD. The objective of this study was to analyze how Spanish prime time has adapted to new media and how programs are managing interactions with the audience. In order to do the analysis, the three main TV groups –RTVE, Atresmedia, Mediaset- were chosen and all the programs were categorized into three genres. The results revealed a weakness in the interactivity strategy of television programs, especially in the informative genres.

Abstract

The social audience emerges with the simultaneous exposure to television and social networks. Through them the audience voices its opinions or interests about the contents in real time. This information is of great value for the advertising strategy. By analyzing the presence of social audiences in the most effective commercial communication campaigns, this study makes evident the common elements and variables used by them. The 23 campaigns awarded in the Efficacy Awards, granted by the Asociación Española de Anunciantes, in the category of media and tactical action, from 2014 to 2018 are examined. Social conversation is detected in 15 cases, although only four campaigns link television content to social media, including social audience in their public strategies. Accordingly, the use of the social audience is scarce but a favorable progression in the strategies is observed, since they gain in transmediality and agents’ participation. Engagement is pursued and branded content, gamification or multiplication of official transmitters is used. The latest cases reveal how they take advantage of these audiences.

Abstract

Television electoral debates are considered one of the most relevant events during the election period due to their high audience and also because of the power they generate to direct the media agendas. The present research examines the transmission of this format in front the proliferation of screens, diffusion on the social networks, introduction of on demand services, and on the go consumption together with the emergence of new television performers. This quantitative study analyses the debates issued during the parliamentary elections in Spain, which took place on the 28th of April 2019, in order to learn about their impact further than traditional television consumption and the engagement achieved. The methodology employed combined the monitoring of different platforms. The conclusions obtained support that the emission of this kind of debates takes place through new distribution channels, generating a high tracking rate on Twitter. The broadcasting strategies of the television chains differ.