The growth and widespread use of social media is altering the viewing experience for some
television audiences quite considerably. Viewers are increasingly integrating social platforms
such as Twitter and Facebook into their TV-watching experience to collectively discuss
programmes and live TV events as they happen. In sum, viewers are watching television
with their laptops or mobile devices at hand, seemingly in an effort to transform their
experience into a social, or community event (Makice, 2009). This paper will examine this
growing intersecting media landscape of television and social media, considering the
consequences of increased audience involvement within this convergence. Analysing the
Twitter-led engagement of viewers of Channel 4’s 2011 Street Riots: The Live Debate, this
study illustrates how Twitter is being used by television audiences and networks
surrounding the live broadcast of a programme. I show how the viewing audience uses
Twitter to express their views on issues within the debate and also on the show itself, the
importance of “liveness” (Auslander 2008) and the extended tweeting audience, and how
information and knowledge is circulated, in form of “collective intelligence” (Lévy, 1997). I
argue that we can see these processes resulting in a change in viewership for many
individuals, subsequently influencing the ways in which audience and programmes engage
with each other
