Online Backchannels to Television Broadcasts in Spain

The next "Compromised Data" is Mariluz Sánchez, who is taking a socio-semiotic approach to the intersection between television and the Internet. This transforms the concept of interactivity, revolutionising reception and enabling the development of transmedia storytelling where viewers develop relationships with the content through various platforms.

Various resources are available to viewers online, promoting consumption and building loyalty towards the programming. Industry is now providing direct access to audiences, and viewers' ability to provide direct feedback can be seen as a form so social empowerment. Mariluz analysed these resources by examining the resources listed on the first five pages of Google search results for specific TV shows, excluding BitTorrent and other download resources.

Categories used in the analysis included the type of programming (drama, comedy, ...), the site format (social network, blog, ...), its administration (official / unofficial), its openness, and the static or dynamic nature of the resources. There tended to be an official mothership Website, with official blogs and fora serving as complementary resources; social media served as distribution networks for information, and fandom blogs were also prominent on the unofficial side. But there often was a lack of connectivity - the sites rarely linked to each other. Videos were also rare, due to copyright issues.

The study focussed especially on the season finales for shows, including official sites, social networks, and fan sites. It collected some 5,500 comments from 110 sites to explore whether real conversations took place, and what structure they took, what themes were discussed, and how community relations were externalised in these interactions. Further, were specific social issues thematised; were there complaints about scheduling or advertising or about the accuracy of period shows; were questions asked about specific elements of the shows; were participants male or female; was the sentiment positive or negative?

Mainly, participants discussed the storylines themselves, and women dominated amongst the commenters whose gender was identifiable. Discourses are articulated differently in different online formats - Facebook is more anticipatory, for example, while Twitter serves as a live backchannel to the broadcasts.