Television took over the hearts of the contemporary people as soon as it first appeared. Very quickly, the number and diversity of the programs it offered grew larger to match the tastes of all groups of viewers. Today, in the age of customized goods and customer-focused approach, television is undertaking another significant change trying to become more inclusive, responsive, and representative. Due to this trend, the communication between viewers and television content creators has become more interactive.
Faninteraction: Social Media and Representation in Popular Television
The article selected for this paper is entitled #Faninteraction: Social Media and Representation in Popular Television; it was published in a well-known online magazine The Artifice in 2016. In this article, the author shares some insights on the contemporary media communication between fans and the creators of popular TV shows. The article begins with an example of an idea proposed by a fan via Twitter which was appreciated and adopted by a TV series producer (“#Faninteraction: Social Media and Representation in Popular Television”). This interaction serves as an illustration of how effective can be the expression of opinions by fans on social media. The author also points out that both parties benefit from this form of interactive communication (“#Faninteraction: Social Media and Representation in Popular Television”). Fans have a chance to influence the course of their favorite shows, and creators get access to audience preferences and impressions in real-time, a kind of data that used to take much time to collect and process through customer base research.
Of course, the easy and fast communication available today between audiences and content creators is much more convenient than the interaction forms used in the past such as letter-writing. However, this type of communication has its own downsides. Exploiting the changing tastes and wants of their viewers, TV show creators are able to engage in aggressive marketing by means of adding content and characters that the fans would like to see, but in a more superficial manner than expected. In other words, there is a chance that in order to increase representation or match the viewers’ expectations, creators of TV series could add unrepresentative ethnically diverse characters just for their skin color. Such action is, practically, a manifestation of racial bias.
Watching Television Without Pity
In his article “Watching Television Without Pity”, Mark Andrejevic explored the issue of the interactive communication between fans and content creators by saying that the modern industry of films and TV series resembles reality TV. Specifically, the similarity lies in the ability of fans to influence the content and course of their preferred shows or even dictate which themes and characters are going to become explored in the future films. According to Andrejevic, just like in the game and reality shows, the audiences of TV series are invited to vote for their favorite couples, plotline developments, and themes (24-25). This way, the creators of shows collect valuable information that helps market their products further. The viewer feedback is an important factor that drives the rates of consumption of a TV show and helps its producers select the most effective marketing strategies.
This way, the viewers play two active roles in the TV production by assisting in the content creation to make the shows more interesting and by providing timely feedback to guide the producers. Differently put, such interaction presents a collaborative effort where audiences cooperate with producers in order to create a final product that is beneficial and interesting for both parties. Fortunately, contemporary social media provide multiple ways of accessing, collecting, and processing consumers’ viewpoints that can help transform them into marketing strategies useful for content creators.
Works Cited
Andrejevic, Mark. “Watching Television Without Pity: The Productivity of Online Fans.” Television & New Media, vol. 9, no. 1, 2008, 24-46.
“#Faninteraction: Social Media and Representation in Popular Television.” The Artifice. 2016. Web.