Instagram and Eurovision fandom (2017)

Full title: ‘Social TV and depictions of community on social media: Instagram and Eurovision fandom’.

Chapter for: Digital Media: Transformations in Human Communication (second edition), eds. Paul Messaris & Lee Humphreys. Published by Peter Lang.

Abstract:

Social media have become intertwined in audiences’ television viewing, in how viewers experience texts and how broadcasters encourage and attract audiences with varying levels of interactivity and participation through ‘social television’. Popular social media like Twitter are well established for engaging with broadcasts through practices like live-tweeting, but this is not the only platform used or encouraged for this context. This chapter examines how audiences engage with both broadcast and context on Instagram, focusing on the specific case of the Australian experience of the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest. Visual social media demonstrate and disclose practices around television engagement, audiencing, and fandom which are not necessarily visible on Twitter, and which highlight different ideas of the ‘social’ for both social media and social TV.

Citation: Highfield, T. (2017) ‘Social TV and depictions of community on social media: Instagram and Eurovision fandom’. In P. Messaris & L. Humphreys (Eds.), Digital Media: Transformations in Human Communication (second edition). Peter Lang, pp. 156-165.

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