Abstract

Social media services and microblogging applications, such as
‘Twitter’, are changing the way in which many people consume
traditional broadcast media. Real-time backchannel conversations
are now common-place as audiences simultaneously watch TV
whilst using social media to broadcast their own thoughts,
sentiments, opinions and emotions related to what they are
watching. This individual behaviour, when aggregated, results in
a new social experience comprising of mass, real-time, coconsumption
of TV services. This paper describes a study which
aims to understand user behaviour in this emerging area and
provides some preliminary analysis of viewers’ Twitter postings
during the UK TV shows, The X Factor and Question Time. Our
findings show that the postings expose audience engagement with
TV shows and support the assertion of Twitter’s growing
confluence with broadcast media.