Emergence of the viewing public: Does social television viewing transform individual viewers into a viewing public?

This study wanted to find out whether social viewing, the act of exchanging ideas through online media while watching television programs, can turn an audience member into a viewing public. This study proposed nine variables that represent attributes of viewing pubic and content analyzed social viewing discussions based on those variables. The results showed that more than half of the discussions reflected negotiated reading and independent reading of the television texts. A factor analysis of the nine indicators of social viewing resulted in three factors – issue viewing, network viewing and critical viewing. The comparison of three factors across four programs showed that social viewing is sensitive to genres of programs. As expected, the documentary, a non-fiction genre, caused viewers to be engaged in issue related discussions with critical perspectives. The drama genre, on the other hand, was less successful in transforming an audience into public. The study also found that the quality of program did not influence the social viewers’ discussions.