Live Tweeting and Social Presence - #Shadowhunterschat part 2

I’m not going to lie. I’m absolutely in love with live tweeting. It’s the highlight of my Monday nights.

The first time I followed the live tweets I wasn’t watching the show because no cable, remember? It was okay, you could kinda sorta tell what was going on based on what people were posting. But I wasn’t part of the club.

Thankfully, and without giving away too much, there are some pretty awesome fans that will live stream the show.

SERIOUSLY.

Don’t worry, I watch the episode again on Hulu the next day. Maybe the day after that too.

Truthfully, my Monday night goes like this.

Start checking the twitter feed at 7:45pm.

Also, check Facebook to see if they are doing a pre-show live stream. I don’t know if this will happen when they are showing 2B as they should have wrapped up filming by then.

Start streaming the show so I can watch and tweet.

After the show, check Facebook again for wrap up video.

Being able to watch the show while following the live tweets is perfection. The actors and fans are interacting with one another. As a fan, you can post on actor comments which can be serious or silly, depending on the actor. We make posts ourselves and we tag the actors we mention. You get to catch jokes and understand references made to specific scenes or characters.

It’s as if we were all watching TOGETHER!

But we’re not.

But it feels like we are.

It’s that sense of a common experience, of a community of viewers, that has me so interested in the live tweeting.

You see, there’s this concept with online learning called Social Presence.

The big fancy definition is “the degree to which a person is perceived as a ‘real person’ in mediated communication” (Gunawardena, 1995).

Basically, it’s about how we try to make ourselves real when we talk to people on-line. It’s an important concept because if a student feels connected, they are more likely to participate. Therefore, it’s important to provide opportunities for students to express themselves and share their personality because it helps drive student success.

Now, let’s carry this concept over to live tweeting.

For that one hour, we get to see a different side of the actors.

They aren’t tweeting as their characters, they are tweeting as themselves which means we get to see them as people, not just as actors.

They’re building a relationship with us – they’re creating social presence every time they tweet, comment or like our posts.

This, in turn, encourages viewers to watch the show because we’ve become emotionally invested in not just the characters, but the actors as well.

Some proponents of media and marketing might argue that we, as viewers, are simply being manipulated into watching a show like Shadowhunters because of the social interaction. We are engaging on Twitter because of the content being posted.

I would argue that teens and other fans of the show were already on Twitter before geeking out on the book series, creating fan art and interacting online before the television show. The crew of Shadowhunters is simply capitalizing on what was already happening.

Social media does allow actors to use their voices to influence their follows, I agree. How they use their voice can persuade their fans to act a particular way. At the same time, if their voice allows for positive change, is that really bad? 
Regardless, this is a very mutual connection. The fans love hearing from the actors - that's kind of a given. Why would be fans otherwise? It's also a way for the actors to acknowledge that without their fans, there wouldn't be a show.

But for the actors, well, let me leave this quote from Harry Shum Jr. in a recent Nerds of Color interview. He sums it up nicely.

Harry Shum Jr as Magnus on Shadowhunters

Harry Shum Jr about engaging with fans on Twitter

"A lot of times, people watching [your show] are welcoming you into their homes. That’s why TV and social media has become something like a package. You want to be able to look at what is being said on social media as you watch something. They go hand in hand together now. It’s been cool to see that evolve. At the end of the day, it’s to show appreciation. It’s part of the deal. Just because you’re an actor doesn’t mean you have to do social media. But for me, it’s to show appreciation and to say thank you for watching. That’s what’s cool about it." 

 You can real the whole interview, as well you should, here: https://thenerdsofcolor.org/2017/03/06/shadowhunters-harry-shum-jr/


Works Cited

Gunawardena, C.N. (1995). Social Presence Theory and Implications for Interaction and Collaborative Learning in Computer Conferences. International Journal of Educational Telecommunications. 1 (2), pp. 147-166. Charlottesville, VA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).