Interactions between television and its social audience: Towards a communication conceptualization

Abstract

This paper aims to study the interactions between television and social networks (what we might call social TV) in Latin America, with two goals in mind: 1) Identifying how social media is affecting television consumption, including influential factors; and 2) Quantifying these factors in order to have a clear picture of the phenomenon. For this purpose we used a mixed methods approach, combining a focus group and national survey. The study yielded five major findings: 1) The more comments users read in social media the higher the effect on their television behavior; 2) Open television is discussed more than cable, on demand, and webcasting; 3) The most discussed topics are humor and informational subjects; 4) Facebook and Twitter are the most commonly used platforms to comment about television; 5) While Facebook is the most used site to learn about what friends are viewing on television, Twitter is the most used site to learn about what the general public thinks about television content.