Social Media And TV Today
Social media has touched almost every aspect of modern day life whether you like it or not. However it’s effects on television may have helped saved a one time dying platform.
It was not long ago that rating were down and everyone feared streaming would replace live television programing. With the surgance of social media though people have returned to schedualed programming. It may not be enough to save the norm forever as many channels seem to be experimenting with stand alone streaming services, but it has at least bought them a few years.
Social media has helped in a number of ways. To start with social media discussion forces viewers to watch in a more timely fashion due to the fear of having plots spoiled for them accidentally. We as a society are so deeply entrenched in our social networks that we cannot go prolonged periods of time without it causing devote fans to watch quickly. Next, online discussion act as a type of free marketing for shows and networks as every post is an opportunity to attract a new viewer. Every single hashtag, at reply, mention, whatever, is just another chance to get the name out their of your particular project to a new audience. Social media is also another way to gauge a shows success with the ratings method being flawed and inaccurate. A strong social media presence can help keep shows alive mainly in teen and child genres where the demographic is deeply rooted online. Shows that may have previously been canceled due to lack of ratings before the social media Eera now find millions of posts their life support. For example ABC Families show Pretty Little Liars at one time would have been considered a ratings failure, however thanks to active message boards and posts by fans it was able to survive for future seasons. It also offers viewers a more interactive experience as shows experience with things such as live tweeting, hash tag promotions, and on a few cases such as Hawaii 5-0 allowing the audience vote on things such as the ending in that particular case. This interactivity is changing the medium we once knew.
I am not personally a big social media fan but you cannot ignore the effect it has had on the media industry as a whole.
Brad Lee
