Television Co-Creation with Social Media Users: #7DaysLater

The next speaker in our AoIR 2015 panel is Jonathon Hutchinson, who zooms in to a specific transmedia programme screened by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, #7DaysLater. The premise of the show is to create comedy programming within seven days, and to incorporate social media engagement practices into the show.

Such viewing is more than just subsequent watercooler discussions – it's about viewer co-creation practices. The challenge is to break through the noise barrier on social media, and to find the techniques for encouraging audience participation, especially in the context of a public service broadcaster.

Audience engagement must be a useful form of participation, then, in line with the ABC's organisational remit as a public service media organisation – and this doesn't simply mean attracting the largest audience possible, but also catering for niche audiences, and developing innovative means of doing so.

#7DaysLater turned the programme brief over to the audience, using a Google Hangout to enable the audience to talk about the possible direction of the week's show, developing this further through a show on the Triple J radio channel, refining it further through the rest of the week, and broadcasting it the following Monday. The process was accompanied by very active social media use all the way through.

Jonathon's analysis followed an experimental process of research where data were gathered via Twitter and analysed and visualised via Google Open Refine and Gephi. This reveals the most important users and topics in the Twitter discussion around the show, and points to the key influencers in the network surrounding the show.

Jonathon engaged with these lead users to find out more about their interests in participating – this revealed their engagement as a kind of hope labour that they hoped may lead to more formal connections with the ABC.

Overall, then, it seems that the ABC has the responsibility not just to provide the tools and platforms but also to engage key users and audiences actively in its programming. The kind of analysis Jonathon has performed can be useful in guiding the organisation's social media strategies.