There are lots of uses of Twitter that smack of lame bandwagon-jumping. This definitely isn’t one – live commentaries for TV shows via Twitter.
US TV network Fox is to spice up its forthcoming repeats of Fringe and Glee with tweets from the show’s cast and producers as the show goes out. The tweets will be displayed along the bottom of the screen during the show, and viewers can submit questions via Twitter using @ replies to @FRINGEonFOX and @GLEEonFOX.
It’s a brilliant idea, adding interactivity and a new life to repeats that many might not bother watching otherwise. Twitter is used increasingly as a way for audiences to interact with TV shows. MTV even has a formal partnership with Twitter for its show It’s On with Alexa Chung.
With social media use doubling in the past year, these innovations are sure to continue. Imagine seeing your opinions of a football game appearing on-screen during its live transmission, for example. This kind of thing doesn’t require Twitter, of course, but doing so makes participation free and easy for viewers.
Now, if Twitter could charge TV networks for these kinds of uses it might go some way towards making a profit.
[via PC World]
TV? Does anyone still watch that?
This is something we’ve been doing on the @4homes twitter feed for a while – it appears to be universally popular with viewers, many of whom liken it to live and interactive DVD commentary. It’s particularly great when presenters of the programmes, notably @georgeclarketv and @kirstiemallsopp also join in during broadcasts. In fact, the response is usually so overwhelming that we struggle to cope with the sheer volume of comments and questions coming in.
Similarly, we may not know how a paragraph is organized or how a story is put together until we teach writ- ing to students who do not know how to organize their thoughts. ,