Katie Walsh What Does Twitter Really Offer TV Audiences, And At What Cost? Abstract Attention is one of the currencies with which television audiences purchase media—we pay, but the question of who profits is a question that must be considered, particularly in light of the billion dollar profits from the initial public offering of Twitter stock in the fall of 2013. This IPO put a value on audience interaction, as Twitter relied on the conversations users were having around legacy media such as television to prove their worth as a location for attention-based advertising models. Tweets become tangible evidence of audience attention, which serves as a commodity to be bought and sold, and as a new metric for counting audiences metrics. However, does all of the speculation merit the valuation? And how does this live-tweeting audience activation truly affect the audience experience? Is it really worth anything, and furthermore, what are the problematic aspects of this visible audience valuation? The question of the television audience has to cater (or not) to the fan response that they bedeviled and beguiled television producers, critics, receive on their shows, ensuring fan appreciation and academics as long as TV has existed. Often, and loyalty, but almost more importantly, online the audience is visualized onscreen, most often audience visibility has seemed to solve the other in talk or sketch/variety shows, instructing home issue of counting audiences. This is something that audiences in how to react to performers onscreen both TV producers and the proprietors of the online (see also: the laugh track), but the home audience venues where audiences make themselves known has largely remained invisible, aside from that have taken note of, and in which opportunity murky, yet necessary process known as the Nielsen seems obvious. ratings system. It wasn’t until the advent of the Live-tweeting television (and recapping and internet in the 1990s that TV audiences have made commenting after an episode) is a way for fans to themselves known, and the television landscape participate in the show itself: to insert themselves has not been the same since, orienting itself more into the game of television via technology and and more toward those audiences working to make social networks in order to possibly demonstrate their opinions known, often directly to creators, their dominance or superior knowledge over the beyond insular fan communities. text; to manifest their ironic or negotiated readings Whether it’s through message boards, recaps, of the show. Audience interactions with televisual comments, and now, live-tweeting, audiences and narratives, and their possible influence on how TV fans have carved out a space for their opinions these texts are made is an interesting question, but on the internet; their every comment left on a ultimately, television exists not necessarily to tell digital, largely public archive, a source of instant stories but also to sell advertising. Producers of feedback for TV producers. Producers are able film and television rely on audiences to make their Television Connectivity 11 Taylor Nygaard, editor, Spectator 34:2 (Fall 2014): 11-15. WHAT DOES TWITTER REALLY OFFER TV AUDIENCES, AND AT WHAT COST? productions real, as receptors of their productions, eyes of their followers and possibly more through but more importantly, they rely on audiences to retweets and @ mentions. However, these stories make their work profitable. are written about audiences for investors, and can When studying media, its industry, and its often seem like an echo chamber of businessmen consumers, issues of labor, product, profit, and shouting at each other, while audiences remain economics are absolutely necessary and crucial to blissfully oblivious, creating their own viewership take into account. This was thrown into crystal- practices and enduring the glut of ads that creep clear relief this fall, as Twitter geared up for its initial into Facebook newsfeeds and Twitter timelines. public offering of stock on the New York Stock There is a specific strategy at play in the pages Exchange, and much speculation was bandied of business trades and publications: to prove that about on the value of users, television audiences, Twitter has value and that investors need to buy and their attention to their screens. As advertising shares to get in on this moneymaking opportunity. and television trade magazines and newspaper This keeps the value of audience attention at an business pages speculated on share prices and all time high—but who is buying this story? valuations of Twitter, it became abundantly clear Investors? Audiences? that live-tweeting was so much more than just a The practice of live-tweeting shows and events way for audiences to interact with televisual texts: has been a boon for TV, which has struggled to it was also the number one way that a billion dollar adapt advertising strategies to technologically company was going to prove its value. empowered viewers who are increasingly Scholars of connected viewing now have to consuming their TV time shifted on DVRs (which be conversant in Wall Street lingo and economic allows for fast forwarding through commercial parlance, as the products of fan labor, the tweets breaks), on streaming services such as Netflix (no that viewers generate as part of their interaction or ads, subscription based model), and Hulu (ads, play with a show, leave the traces of their attention premium subscription available), or On Demand. on social networks, which is tangible evidence of Live-tweeting inserts the “live” back into TV, their attention—a commodity that is bought and which means in order to “properly” participate, sold between media and technology corporations live-tweeters have to be watching on both their TV and conglomerates. While Twitter has been a screens and Twitter screens (computer or mobile), world-changing service and impacted the way and thus, watching the ads as they happen. This that we communicate with each other, it hasn’t process effectively activates both screens as been incredibly profitable, so it has to discover possible locations for advertising, as audiences will ways to turn its most valuable resource, users, into be paying attention to both. money. Like so many other tech/media services, It is an imperative for television networks an advertising based model makes the most sense. to put the live back in TV. Much in the way 250 million sets of eyeballs on Twitter means 250 that a live event like the Super Bowl has created million possible consumers to put ads in front of. a lucrative space for advertising, with millions To read the many articles about Twitter and watching, live events hold a certain amount of TV this fall, one would think that the strategy of sway over TV viewers who are bound by the spell pushing promoted tweets into the timelines of of an uncertain outcome (see also: awards shows, users is going to be a cash cow for networks and and sporting events in general). NBC’s recent The advertisers. But is this only based on rampant Sound of Music: Live was a strategy to animate the speculation and specific narratives pushed by the live space, and many tweeted along (some with media? The October cover of Forbes Magazine an ironic or humorous viewpoint too). During declared, “How Twitter Will Save TV (And TV the Season 3 Premiere of Scandal, official ABC Will Save Twitter).”1 Twitter is often referred to as and production Twitter accounts promoted live- a “force multiplier,” (by Twitter CEO Dick Costolo tweeting and hashtags on screen, encouraging on the cover of Forbes2). It’s true that a tweet from audience members to follow along. At the same a single user about a TV show has the ability to time that this was happening, many Twitter users reverberate throughout their networks, reaching the (including myself, as I was participating and using 12 FALL 2014 WALSH official hashtags) received ads in their timeline for quantify, though there are delayed reverberations the film The Best Man Holiday, which promoted throughout the network. The New York Times the trailer for the film that was going to run during reported that even though only a tiny fraction of the show. An ad for an ad! And in both televisual the Grey’s Anatomy audience tweeted about the and online spaces. show, “the posts, 225,000 of them in total, were For Twitter and other social networks, seen by millions of Twitter users, some of whom there is a scramble to be the place for television might have fired up their digital video recorders or conversation, the virtual water cooler that is seen as laptops to watch the episode later.”6 The numbers an untapped market for advertising. A recent New aren’t quite there on the real impact of Twitter on York Times article titled “Swarm Seeking Share of TV (and TV on Twitter), but all of the speculation Social Media Pie,” states that, “for investors the could be driving up the price of audience attention question is which services will attract the most without real metrics. Twitter offers both the users and the most advertisers.”3 Another article, promise and convolution of audience metrics. “Social Networks In A Battle for The Second There is also the concern of how this affects Screen,” reports that: the audience experience of watching TV, which is never addressed by these trades and business Facebook and Twitter both see the outlets. With over-activation, producers may be social conversation around television detracting from the televisual experience, as most as a way to increase use of their sites shows these days come with suggested hashtags, and win a bigger piece of advertisers’ official twitter accounts to follow, or interactive spending, which eMarketer estimates games at the bottom of the screen.