This document discusses how Twitter is used as a "second screen" for discussing television as it airs live. It allows viewers to comment and interact about shows as they watch. Key aspects of live tweeting include commenting on plot points, speculation about upcoming events, and interacting with other viewers and celebrities. However, live tweeting can also create issues like spoilers if viewers are not watching simultaneously. The document examines the types of programs people like to live tweet and what social TV conversations on Twitter typically look like.

1. ‘Saving Live TV’?Watching television with Twitter Ruth A. Deller, Sheffield Hallam University, UK r.a.deller@shu.ac.uk, @ruthdeller @RadShef

2. Introduction Twitter as ‘second screen’ for talking TV The importance of being ‘live’ Not really about fandom! What is Twitter? 140 character remarks ‘Following’ #hashtags: labels for following topics Trending topics: Top ten @mentions: references to other accounts RTs/retweets: recirculated messages / ‘quotes’

3. Introduction From ‘micro-blogging’ to ‘real-time’; from ‘what are you doing?’ to ‘what’s happening?’ Media and Twitter ‘integration’ Use of Twitter by media organisations, professionals and ‘celebrities’ Twitter’s raised profile due to ‘newsworthiness’ (Deller 2011)

4. Tweeting along

5. ‘Liveness’ ‘Liveness– that is, live transmission – guarantees a potential connection to our shared social realities as they are happening…'Liveness' naturalises the idea that, through the media, we achieve a shared attention to the realities that matter for us as a society. This is the idea of the media as social frame, the myth of the mediated centre. It is because of this underlying idea (suggesting society as a common space focused around a ‘shared’ ritual centre) that watching something ‘live’ makes the difference it does: otherwise why should we care that others are watching the same image as us, and (more or less) when we are?’ (Couldry, 2003: 97-99)

6. ‘Liveness’ ‘Maximum Liveness’= 'we are watching at the same time as the event, at the same time as everyone else, and, what is more, with an event taking place in different locations connected by television, as is typically the case with major media events' (Bourdon 2000: 534-535). Peak traffic around ‘events’ (news, sport, reality finals, telethons etc)

7. ‘Liveness’ ‘The invention of real-time social networking sites (this means Twitter) has added a whole new dimension to the enjoyment of Big Brother... now you can hold a conversation with anyone you want while it’s on and enjoy real-time tweeted commentary from celebs, pundits and randoms. Or, indeed, be one such commentator’. (Longridge 2010: 146).

8. A sense of presence Twitter ‘exaggerates “presentism”… a continued imagined consciousness of a shared temporal dimension’ (Gruzd, Wellman and Takhteyev, forthcoming:9). ‘Too tired for Newswipe. Have to iPlayer it. Off to bed with a hot water bottle’. ‘Band practice means late home. Going to miss the start of #TBOC’

9. What’s the appeal?

10. What kinds of programmes? Everything! Not always the obvious ‘trend’ Smaller channels News and sport big hitters Factual genres Media ‘events’

11. What kinds of programmes?

14. ‘Perils’ of liveness Spoilers Which channel to watch Regulating hashtags (is it #strictly #scd #bbcstrictly or #strictlycomedancing ?) Global confusion (e.g. Big Brother, Masterchef)

15. Conclusion Twitter as ‘second screen’ viewing Enhanced ‘liveness’ and ‘presence’ Performing as a ‘commentator’ Role of ‘industry’ Style of ‘official’ accounts: humour/formal RTs and recirculation via ‘official’ accounts Connection to other media/individual accounts ‘Official’ hashtags New modes of interaction or simply the new ‘phone-in’?

16. References Bourdon, Jérôme(2000), 'Live television is still alive: on television as an unfulfilled promise', Media, Culture and Society, 22 (5): 531-556 Couldry, Nick (2004), ‘Liveness, “Reality”, and the Mediated Habitus from Television to the Mobile Phone’, The Communication Review, 7: 353-361. Deller, Ruth (2011), ‘Twittering on: audience research and participation using Twitter’, Participations, 8 (1), http://www.participations.org/Volume%208/Issue%201/deller.htm Digital Clarity (2011), ‘Under 25s swap remote controls for iPhones as ‘Social TV’ trend takes over’, Digital Clarity http://www.digital-clarity.com/press-releases/under-25s-swap-remote-controls-for-iphones-as-social-tv-trend-takes-over Goldman, David (2011), ‘Twitter CEO: We’re saving live TV’, CNNMoney.com, URL:http://money.cnn.com/2011/02/14/technology/twitter_mwc/index.htm [visited 28/03/2011]

17. References Gruzd, Anatoliy, Wellman, Barry and Takhteyev, Yuri (forthcoming), ‘Imagining Twitter as an Imagined Community’, to appear in the American Behavioral Scientist. Jenkins, Henry (2009), ‘The message of Twitter: “Here is is” and “Here I am”, Confessions of an Aca-Fan, http://henryjenkins.org/2009/08/the_message_of_Twitter.html Mapping Online Publics, http://www.mappingonlinepublics.net/ Wakefield, Jane (2011), ‘Tweeting with the telly on’ BBC News, 23 March, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12809388