Second Screen and Participation: A Content Analysis on a Full Season Dataset of Tweets

The practice of using a "second screen" while following a television program is quickly becoming a widespread phenomenon. When the secondary device is used for comments about programs, most discussions take place on popular social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Previous research pointed out the value of these conversations in understanding the behavior of "networked publics." Building upon this background, this article presents the first study on a complete dataset of tweets (2,489,669) that span an entire season of a TV genre (1,076 episodes of talk shows). A content analysis of the tweets created during the season's most engaging moments indicates a relationship between typology of broadcasted scenes, style of comments, and the way participation (audience and political) is played.