The tweeting broadcaster: SBS and social media audience engagement
1. e tweeting broadcaster:
SBS and social media
audience engagement
Tim Highfield
QUT + Curtin
t.highfield@qut.edu.au | timhighfield.net | @timhighfield
2. Background
• Tracking hashtags around Eurovision and
the Tour de France, 2012-‐‑2014
– See:
• Highfield, Harrington, & Bruns (2013). TwiGer as a
technology of audiencing and fandom: The
#eurovision phenomenon. Information,
Communication & Society, 16(3), 315-‐‑339.
• Highfield (2013). Following the yellow jersey:
Tweeting the Tour de France. Twi5er and Society
(eds. Weller et al.), 249-‐‑261.
3. The twist
• Rather than the event-‐‑wide hashtags,
concentrating here on broadcaster-‐‑specific
hashtags
– SBS:
• #sbseurovision
• #sbstdf
– Other broadcasters covering same events may
use their own specific hashtags, in addition to
the global #eurovision, #esc, #tdf, #letour…
4. Reasoning
• Using unique hashtags can enable a
concentration or centralisation of the
broadcaster’s audience
– Separates viewers from those watching other
broadcasters, provides common context and
allows for additional content for broadcast
– In the case of Eurovision, #sbseurovision is a
channel for Australians unsullied by spoilers
(since delayed telecast), unlike #eurovision
5. Questions
• To what extent might broadcaster-‐‑specific
hashtags foster conversation around the
shared experience of watching televised
programming?
• How do such conventions, and their
outcomes, impact upon the relationships
between audiences and broadcasters on
social media?
7. Methods
yourTwapperKeeper
-‐‑ queries TwiGer API for specified keywords
(including hashtags)
-‐‑ subject to rate limiting and does not access
full TwiGer stream
#sbseurovision and #sbstdf archived in 2012
and 2013 (and continued in 2014)
8. Results
– #sbseurovision (SF1-‐‑final):
• 2012: 112,836 tweets from 20,418 users
• 2013: 146,934 tweets from 18,828 users
– #sbstdf (first stage to final stage):
• 2012: 39,115 tweets from 3,185 users
• 2013: 46,202 tweets from 5,425 users
12. Results
0
1000
2000
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5000
#sbstdf, types of tweet (2012)
Sum of retweets
Sum of genuine @replies
Sum of original tweets
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
#sbstdf, types of tweet (2013)
Sum of retweets
Sum of genuine @replies
Sum of original tweets
14. SBS TwiGer strategies
– Official accounts (programme and host) active
during broadcasts and visible hooks for audience
• Mentions of official accounts as signifiers for the
people/shows themselves (in keeping with wider
TwiGer practices)
– Promote hashtags not just for content in
broadcast, but to strengthen communal feeling
among audience
• #sbstdf community in particular: dedicated audience
with its own tropes (including tweeting at and with
presenters)
15. Eurovision vs. TDF
– Some crossover among audiences:
• 41,298 users contribute to the four datasets in total
– 159 posted in all four, 486 in three of the four
– Among users posting in all four are SBS personalities
Mike Tomalaris and Sam Pang, and SBS News
– Different styles of audience tweeting
• Interactivity, conversation?, and community (TDF)
vs. isolated one-‐‑liners en masse (Eurovision) –
with an aim to appear on-‐‑screen?
• Impact of different types of event/programme on
tweets?
16. SBS and the TwiGer audience
• Interactions are based both around the text
and the other people involved in the
discussions
– Fans respond to the conventions and tropes of the
broadcasts of Eurovision and the Tour de France
as well as the specific developments on screen.
– For both events, repetition of traits is an
important part of the experience of these events,
fostered by familiarity with the texts and
encouraged by the broadcaster
• Inspire increased dedication, centralisation, and text-‐‑
specific fandom.
17. Beyond TwiGer
– SBS’s trans-‐‑/social media strategies
• Online experience of broadcasts through Tour Social Hub
• Apps
• Podcasts, games, radio, blogs/op eds
• In-‐‑broadcast social media extends beyond TwiGer to
Instagram and Facebook (as promoted in 2014 Eurovision
broadcast)
• Not strictly broadcasting (one-‐‑to-‐‑many) but more reflexive?
– TwiGer is a particularly visible medium, well-‐‑
established as a backchannel and comparatively
straightforward to collect data
• However, it is not the only medium, and is not used in
isolation
• Part of an extended experience around these events