Can Social TV Use Cultural Intermediation to Facilitate Participation?

Abstract

This chapter predominately looks at user participation beyond access, and towards inclusive facilitation: a role suitable for cultural intermediation. The global screen industries have been experimenting with user participation for several years, based on broad cultural goals, which has also ignited broader media debates. The public service media (PSM) remit requires the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) to provide for minorities whilst fostering national culture and the public sphere. The remit of PSM and its impact on national and cultural policy, as scholars argue, is the reason for the significance of this burgeoning field, where PSM are positioned as cultural facilitating institutions: they provide the cultural voice of geographical region for both its citizens and as an exported cultural product. PSM’s role as a cultural institution is crucial within the field of comedy television. Social media platforms and projects, specifically ‘social TV’, have enabled greater participation in ABC content consumption and creation; they provide opportunities for social participation in collaborative cultural production. However, this chapter argues that instead of deconstructing boundaries, social media platforms may, in fact, reconstruct participation barriers within the co-creative production processes. This chapter documents the ABC co-creation between Twitter users and the #7DaysLater television programme, which is a narrative-based comedy programme that engaged its audience through social media to produce its weekly programme. The chapter argues why the ABC should engage in social media platforms to collaboratively produce content, with #7DaysLater providing an innovative example, but suggests skilled cultural intermediaries with experience in community facilitation should carry out the process. This chapter describes how cultural intermediation is the process of public service media organizations engaging digital influencers across social media to support authentic participation amongst a broader group of citizens.