Social networks and TV : love-match or marriage of convenience?

Social networks and TV : love-match or marriage of convenience ?

More and more the TV viewers learn how to vertically get together through social networks and other ( video ) sharing sites, according to interests, needs, fights and fun. This way they escape the mass audience model of the classic FTA ( Free To Air ) or pay broadcasters, and lead the fragmentation of the existing media market towards new forms of attention and active cooperation among themselves.

Examples in different countries and continents show that some broadcasting strategists and decision makers have now fully ( ?! ) acknowledged the strong potential --- for marketing and audience-building --- of these Web 2.0 practices . But do they also understand the deep change in TV viewers profile and behaviour ? Are they prepared to accept the new relation between the horizontal offer of their schedules and the vertical answer of the audience’s new segments ? I.e. to tackle the migration from the mass media to the micro media paradigm ?

The exponential growth of the video traffic in Internet seems indicative of a different allocation of end users time and ( possibly ) expenditure for video information and entertainment. It also underlines their strong wish and ability to contribute in many ways to the content production, both by directly revealing talents and creating ideas, themes and audiovisual UGC ( Users Generated Content ); and by posting comments and modifications, and sharing selections and preferences that increase the content value and its chances of meeting with success.

But all these “contributions” are as many challenges for the traditional way to organise, fill and carry television services to the audience; and suggest a strong need of innovation in TV formats and strategies. Let’s have a look to the next media landscape, where more images, more stories, more information and entertainment will be available, and usable in many more ways by all of us.

The workshop , to be animated by Gaetano Stucchi on behalf of “Cinéma Tous Écrans”, will be based on few short presentations ( 5’ each ) :

➢ a speaker from the broadcasting world, making clear what’s new today on TV screens ( and behind ) because of the Web 2.0 ;
➢ another one from the social network side, testifying how the Internet people organise themselves especially with regard to visual media ( television, movie and video );
➢ an independent audiovisual producer, explaining how professional programme makers perceive benefits and fears of a tighter cooperation with the Web players;
➢ a TV consumer in the new proactive shape, who looks for different ways to “use” the broadcasting content ( the “vi-user” pattern = viewer + user ).

Then . . . brainstorming ! With the aim of identifying, through the exchange of experiences and points of view, some trends and concrete prototypes for the future of video content both on (neo-)television and Internet.