Television ja Twitterin risteyksessä: Sosiaalinen televisio vuorovaikutuksen ja mediatapahtumaan osallistumisen välineenä

Abstract

This study examines the interplay between the traditionally unidirectional and restricted broadcast media and the newer, interactive and open social media. The study focuses on the intersection of television and Twitter during the massive media event, the FIFA World Cup (2014). The main objective is to understand interactional practices in a digital environment in which television viewers are encouraged to participate in a media event in real time. The theoretical basis of the study is threefold. Firstly, the literature on media events deepens our understanding of the context of the data; secondly, the study finds some of its ideas in the fields of media talk and the appropriation of media; and thirdly, the study draws on multi-party digital communication. This interdisciplinary approach is used to illustrate the complex participation framework of social television. Methodologically, the study relies on digital discourse and conversation analysis, applying different kinds of concepts and tools from traditional discourse and conversation analysis to the analysis of online sites. The research provides new insights into interactions between television and its audiences on the one hand, and interactions among audience members on the other. In addition, it throws light on the role of a media event in the digital age. The findings of the study have been reported in four research articles, each of which emphasises the interactional practices of social television from a different perspective. The findings indicate that through Twitter, an audience can construct a meaningful watching experience by positioning themselves in various ways in relation to the media event, to the broadcast, and to other viewers. The sub-studies show that tweeters can themselves perform as active participants and take new kinds of roles, which blurs many traditional media categories and dualisms, such as the producer-consumer, the performer-audience, the celebrity-ordinary and the global-local. However, despite the active role they adopt, tweeters are dependent on the broadcast, which not only restricts their access to television, but also works as a source text on which the tweeter must rely in order to perform themselves as proper football watchers. Thus, the study argues that in the context of social television, social media have changed the ways we enjoy television content but not the power of television as a focal point of society.