Kuidas kaasavad avalik-õigusliku televisiooni saated Facebooki abil vaatajaid
Date
2011
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Tartu Ülikool
Abstract
The objective of this master's thesis is to study how public television uses Facebook to involve their viewers.
In the theoretical study of the thesis I included a report of the reference system – democratic society, participation and participatory democracy, the relationship between the democracy and the media, digital participatory democracy, information society, social networking and the challenges of the public broadcasting in the context of new media. Concisely, the public broadcasting networks in democracy serve the interest of the general public and are subject to public control. Meanwhile the public broadcasting network has lost much of its former identity in the last few decades and has to go forward with a swift and inevitable reformation in these changing times. It is the premise of its survival. First and foremost the public broadcasting must become the public media. This implies the diverse utilization of media platforms – the production and distribution of new public content is important on these new platforms. On the other hand – if the public institution looses touch with the general public, its content has no consumers – no matter the platform. It is essential to preserve (if necessary, to establish) and nurture communication with the public. In contemporary times the public has moved to and is accessible via the Internet. That is why the strategy aimed at the user of the public media must encompass different platforms, social networks among others. Because Estonia's (and the better part of the world's) most popular social network is Facebook (FB), I studied the activity of the broadcasting networks on FB, and, to be more specific, how they involve their fans.
For this purpose I observed in empirical study the posts on the FB Page of six (almost) daily live shows during the period of one month (1. September - 1. October). The selected public institutions are BBC (United Kingdom and Northern Ireland), YLE (The republic of Finland), and ERR (The Republic of Estonia).
BBC is worlds most recognized and oldest public media enterprise. YLE is the medium of Nordic culture and the bearer of strong public broadcasting tradition; in addition it is comparable and understandable to the Estonian cultural background. ERR is the Estonian Public Broadcasting corporation. The select shows are the morning newsmagazines (Terevisioon, Aamu TV, The Breakfast) and the evening entertainment talk shows (Ringvaade, Puoli seitsemän – Ps, The One Show).
I searched for answers to the following questions:
1. What is the purpose of the show's FB page
2. Does the crew of the show look for contact with the viewer, do they try to involve the
fan
3. What are the practices of communication with the viewers through FB for different
countries and where in the comparison stands ERR
4. How to measure success communicating with the FB community (the count of the
responses, the increase of the ratings or the formation of a loyal community)
For the method I chose content analysis, which in my opinion applies best to the study of the posts made by different editorial boards and the their friends or fans.
In the result two strategies differentiated. The morning and evening program of BBC and YLE are stylistically so alike (the editorial board uses similar strategies inside the organization), that it is plausible to speculate the existence of a social network strategy on the organizational level. Both of these institutions value the inclusion of the viewer, but execute it in a different manner. BBC is more conservative and official, YLE on the contrary uses more informal language and warm personal attitude. Both of them have an active fan base, in case of YLE the activity of the fans is comparatively larger ( % of the fan count). ERR lacks a general strategy for the use of the social network on an organizational level. First and foremost it seems to serve the means of marketing – a way to spread information. Still both of the ERR’s shows examined have acquired a loyal fan base, that has occasionally revealed its potential, which they have not known how or have not been able to harness in its full capacity.
An interesting outcome appeared analyzing the accordance of the FB content and the reactions. Namely it became obvious, that the editorial boards contribute most vigorously posting the introduction to the shows and it does not merit enough interest from the fan base. Considerably less attention is focused on personal approach, where actually lies the fan base's readiness to react.
It must be noted that in case of all the FB pages, the editorial boards do not use the potential of FB. The platform offers in addition to posting messages, pictures/videos the compilation of questionnaires, the organization of small sub communities and much more.