Personally I don’t get the hype behind Glee, it’s not really my cup of tea. That being said, I completely understand Glee fans partaking in fan fiction, live tweeting and role playing centered around the, BEST SHOW OF ALL TIME. Television shows that run for a long time gain huge followings that feel personally connected to the shows. Trekkies have their conventions, Buffyverse remains loyal to their slayer during this sparkling vampire epidemic, and Friends fans continue to quote Chandler and Joey in their everyday life. With more recent shows like Glee and The Walking Dead, fans have taken to their social media accounts to prove their loyalty, and producers have noticed.
Wood & Baughman’s article, “Glee Fandom and Twitter: Something New, or More of the Same Old Thing”, examines how these role playing fans are tweeting in real time as the show is on air. This helps broadcasters ratings by forcing fans to watch the show live, in order to stay up to date with their fan communities online. “Those participating in or following these tweets as they happen are more likely to (actively or passively) watch commercials, giving marketers a better opportunity to sell their products to these kinds of viewers.” Are these fans a source for free marketing labor?
The Walking Dead has gained a large fan base and its marketing campaign focuses on the popularity of twitter hashtags. When watching the show, commercial breaks start with a hasthtag “#itsrainingzombies” representing what just happened on the show. Thus telling fans to use this hashtag to connect with other fans through twitter, but only if they’re watching live, otherwise the hashtag would be old news. “The content of transmedia texts are embedded with marketing strategies, wherein the goal of the producer is to expand the audience experience, resulting in more consumption overall.” The Walking Dead is using the participatory culture of fans to promote and enlarge their growing fandom, and it's working.
Wood and Baughman say “Fan cultures are shaped (and their practices reshaped) by the combination of television and the Internet.” Is television going too far by asking us to participate in a “two-screen experience LIVE” where fans can interact and take polls...which will in turn be used to better market to them in the future?
In the vein of what Lewis said today in class, I am personally averse to the two screen experience because I find it distracting (at least with shows I am already watching regularly). If I am involved in what is happening in the show I do not want to be influenced or distracted by the opinions of others while I am consuming it. It is more understandable to check Twitter and Reddit during commercial breaks, but even that action seems to be more of an extension of a mindset that’s main focus is staying current. Certainly this is a very general statement and does not apply to everyone, but I can say that when I personally review my online habits it’s less about the content and more about what everyone else is saying about it. Taking it one step further, it’s me looking for external validation of my opinion, which does not make any real sense. For me the commercially exploitative side of these ventures is not really an issue; I expect them to be there. What does bother me is that when I do engage in these two screen/simultaneous online endeavors, I find myself less focused on my perception of the work and more focused on everyone else’s. The result can sometimes blur the line between what is my opinion and what isn’t. For these reasons I avoid most two-screen experiences.
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