It's Not Tv, It's Social Tv

It's Not Tv, It's Social Tv

http://schedule.sxsw.com/events/event_IAP7799

 

Participants:

Chloe Sladden (Twitter)

Fred Graver (The Travel Channel)

Gavin Purcell (Late Night with Jimmy Fallon)

Lila King (CNN.com)

Timothy Shey (Next New Networks)

 

Summary

"How is social media changing the TV experience for good? Over the past ten years, we've seen television become truly interactive, from SMS voting on American Idol to real-time audience feedback via Twitter and Facebook becoming a part of everything from CNN to Oprah to Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. At the same time, web series have built millions of viewers on places like YouTube, iTunes, and XBox Live. Now a new wave of always-connected mobile apps, set-top boxes, and gaming platforms are making entertainment more social, location-aware, and connected than ever. Our panel of producers of hit TV shows and top web platforms will talk about how they're enabling social viewing and collaboration between producers, stars, and audiences in real time to create new kinds of TV experiences."

 

While I am not particularly interested in TV experiences connected to education, I did find this panel to be one of the most useful and interesting (and I'm not just saying this because my wife was on the panel or because they handed out Krispy Creme donuts).  The panel focused on how communities can be created using Twitter or other social media tools to create brand loyalty, drive larger audiences to live TV shows, gather user feedback data, and use audiences to create content.  Much of the discussion seems easily transferable to the University.

 

GSU has various Twitter and Facebook accounts (Arts & Sciences, Parking Services, Bill Curry, School of Music, Campus Events, etc.), and from what I can tell they serve as a place to announce events and information.  The GSU social media page is at www.gsu.edu/social.html .  I'm wondering in what ways the university, departments, or individual faculty members could use/are using social media beyond just the one-way dissemination of information.  I just signed up for Twitter, so I'm no expert, but just listening to this discussion, hashtags are the easiest way to do this. Gavin Purcell showed an example from Jimmy Fallon that makes it clear how hashtags can be used: http://www.hulu.com/watch/192364/late-night-with-jimmy-fallon-hashtags-aw-hell-no .  Most of the sessions I went to at SXSW had a hashtag where the audience could tweet questions for the panel throughout the session.  Robinson College of Business is creating something similar to this with Test Question System: http://www.youtube.com/georgiastateu#p/u/30/hRUd0Sc3ve4  (why not just use Twitter?).  The in-class application seems useful and easy, but I'm wondering how it could be used to create GSU communities outside of the classroom.  Could Political Science create a GSU hashtag for the next presidential debates and give students a place for discussing the debates as they happen with their peers?  What about a pop culture class asking students to analyze a TV show as it happens?  Music students a concert?  All these types of communities already exist elsewhere (and for all I know this is happening here), but having GSU communities could be an exciting way to see what students are thinking, to get feedback about how we are doing as eachers or as a university, and to make students feel more a part of GSU.

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