The hypothesis of this work is that social TV can add to traditional TV audiencehood a sense of collective belonging—“we the public”—that is fundamental for any political action. After a quantitative account of users’ patterns of activity during half a TV season, a qualitative methodology is adopted to understand the variety of social TV logics. Thus, a model of four different kinds and meanings of using social TV is developed: from the most engaged (civic-informative use of social TV) to the most recreational (the game use), from the outburst of emotions (emotional use) to the identity-building and awareness use. Each of those represents various forms of relationships among individuals in a social medium environment, and between them and other actors of the wider contemporary mediated public space, such as civic and political groups, and political news media professionals.
AnstedNickO’LoughlinBrian. 2011. “The Emerging Viewertariat and BBC Question Time: Television Debate and Real-Time Commenting Online.”The International Journal of Press/Politics16 (4): 440–62.
2.
BentivegnaSara. 2014. “Il Fascino della Politica in 140 Caratteri.” In La Politica in 140 Caratteri: Twitter e Spazio Pubblico [“The Fascination with Politics in 140 characters.” In Politics in 140 Characters: Twitter and the Public Space], edited by BentivegnaSara, 13–40. Milan, Italy: FrancoAngeli.
3.
CarloSimoneColomboFausto. 2007. “La Digitalizzazione: Questioni Strutturali.” In La Digitalizzazione dei Media [“Digitalization: Structural Questions.” In Media Digitalization], edited by ColomboFausto, 15–38. Rome: Carocci.
4.
CarpentierNico. 2007. “Participation, Access and Interaction: Changing Perspectives.” In New Media Worlds: Challenges for Convergence, edited by NightingaleVirginiaDwyerTom, 214–30. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
5.
CarpentierNicoDahlgrenPeterPasqualiFrancesca. 2013. “Waves of Media Democratization: A Brief History of Contemporary Participatory Practices in the Media Sphere.”Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies1 (8): 287–94.
6.
CastellsManuel. 2012. Networks of Outrage and Hope: Social Movements in the Internet Age. Cambridge, MA: Polity Press.
7.
Censis-Ucsi. 2013. 11° Rapporto sulla Comunicazione. L’evoluzione Digitale della Specie [11st Report on Communication. The Digital Evolution of the Species]. Rome: Censis.
8.
ChadwickAndrew. 2009. “Web 2.0: New Challenges for the Study of E-Democracy in an Era of Informational Exuberance.”I/S: A Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society5 (1): 9–41.
9.
ChadwickAndrew. 2013. The Hybrid Media System: Politics and Power. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
10.
ChorianopoulosKonstantinosLekakosGeorge. 2008. “Introduction to Social TV: Enhancing the Shared Experience with Interactive TV.”International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction24 (2): 113–20.
11.
CouldryNick. 2004. “Liveness, ‘Reality’, and the Mediated Habitus from Television to the Mobile Phone.”Communication Review7 (4): 353–61.
12.
CouldryNickLivingstoneSoniaMarkhamTim. 2007. Media Consumption and Public Engagement: Beyond the Presumption of Attention. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
13.
DahlgrenPeter. 1995. Television and the Public Sphere: Citizenship, Democracy, and the Media. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
14.
DahlgrenPeter. 2009. Media and Political Engagement: Citizens, Communication and Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
15.
DayanDaniel. 2005. “Mothers, Midwives, and Abortionists: Genealogy, Obstetrics, Audiences and Publics.” In Audiences and Publics: When Cultural Engagement Matters for the Public Sphere, edited by LivingstoneSonia, 43–76. Bristol: Intellect Books.
16.
De BlasioEmiliana. 2008. “Political Engagement and Social Networking between Involvement and participation.” Paper presented at the annual conference of the Association for the Study of Modern Italy, Edinburgh, November.
17.
De BlasioEmiliana. 2014. Democrazia Digitale [Digital Democracy]. Rome: Luiss University Press.
18.
De BlasioEmilianaHibberdMatthewHigginsMichaelSoriceMichele. 2012. La leadership Politica: Media e Costruzione del Consenso [Political Leadership: Media and the Construction of Consent]. Rome: Carocci.
19.
della PortaDonatella. 2013. Can Democracy Be Saved?Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
20.
DellerRuth. 2011. “Twittering On: Audience Research and Participation Using Twitter.”Participations8 (1): 216–45.
21.
DoughtyMarkRowlandDuncanLawsonShaun. 2012. “Who Is on Your Sofa? TV Audience Communities and Second Screening Social Networks.” Paper presented at the 10th European Conference on Interactive TV and Video, Berlin, July.
22.
FuchsChristian. 2014. Social Media: A Critical Introduction. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
23.
GigliettoFabio. 2013. “Exploring Correlations between TV Viewership and Twitter Conversations in Italian Political Talk Shows.”http://ssrn.com/abstract=2306512 (accessed August 28, 2015).
24.
GigliettoFabioSelvaDonatella. 2014. “Second Screen and Participation: A Content Analysis on a Full Season Dataset of Tweets.”Journal of Communication64 (2): 260–77.
25.
GrossTomFetterMirkoPaul-StueveThilo. 2008. “Toward Advanced Social TV in a Cooperative Media Space.”International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction24 (2): 155–73.
26.
HallStuartdu GayPaul. 1996. Questions of Cultural Identity. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
27.
HarboeGunnar. 2009. “In Search of Social Television.” In Social Interactive Television: Immersive Shared Experiences and Perspectives, edited by CesarPabloGeertsDavidChorianopoulosKonstantinos, 1–13. Hershey: Information Science Reference.
28.
HarringtonStephenHighfieldTimBrunsAxel. 2012. “More than a Backchannel: Twitter and Television.” In Audience Interactivity and Participation: Interview/Essays with Academics, edited by NogueraJosé M., 13–17. Brussels: COST Action Transforming Audiences, Transforming Societies.
29.
HermidaAlfred. 2010. “Twittering the News: The Emergence of Ambient Journalism.”Journalism practice4 (3): 297–308.
30.
HibberdMatthewMcNairBrianSchlesingerPhilip. 2003. Mediated Access: Broadcasting and Democratic Participation in the Age of Mediated Politics. Luton: University of Luton Press.
31.
HigginsMichael. 2008. Media and Their Publics. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
32.
HighfieldTimHarringtonSamuelBrunsAxel. 2013. “Twitter as a Technology for Audiencing and Fandom: The #Eurovision Phenomenon.”Information, Communication & Society16 (3): 315–39.
33.
JenkinsHenry. 2006. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York University Press.
34.
LievrouwLeah. 2011. Alternative and Activist New Media. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
35.
LivingstoneSonia. 2005. “On the Relation between Audiences and Publics.” In Audiences and Publics: When Cultural Engagement Matters for the Public Sphere, edited by LivingstoneSonia, 17–42. Bristol: Intellect Books.
36.
LivingstoneSoniaLuntPeter. 1994. Talk on Television. London: Routledge.
37.
LochrieMarkCoultonPaul. 2012. “Sharing the Viewing Experience through Second Screens.”Paper presented at the 10th European Conference on Interactive TV and Video, Berlin, July.
38.
MazzoleniGianpieroSfardiniAnna. 2009. Politica Pop: Da Porta a Porta a L’isola dei Famosi [Political Pop: From door to door in The Island of Famous]. Bologna, Italy: Il Mulino.
39.
NightingaleVirginia. 2007. “New Media Worlds? Challenge for Convergence.” In New Media Worlds: Challenge for Convergence, edited by NightingaleVirginiaDwyerTom, 19–36. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
40.
OldenburgRay. 1991. The Great Good Place. New York: Marlowe.
41.
ParkinsonJohnMansbridgeJane. 2013. Deliberative Systems: Deliberative Democracy at the Large Scale. New York: Cambridge University Press.
42.
SchirraStevenSunHuanBentleyFrank. 2014. “Together Alone: Motivations for Live-Tweeting a Television Series.”Paper presented at ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Toronto, ON, April.
43.
SoriceMichele. 2009. Sociologia dei Mass Media [Sociology of Mass Media]. Rome: Carocci.
44.
SoriceMichele. 2014. I Media e la Democrazia [Media and Democracy]. Rome: Carocci.
45.
StreetJohn. 1997. Politics and Popular Culture. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
46.
van DijkJande VosLoes. 2001. “Searching for the Holy Grail: Images of Interactive Television.”New Media & Society3 (4): 443–65.
47.
van DijkJanHeuvelmanArdPetersOscar. 2003. “Interactive Television or Enhanced Television?”Paper presented at the annual conference of the International Communication Association, San Diego, May.
48.
Van ZoonenLisbeth. 2004. “Imagining the Fan Democracy.”European Journal of Communication19 (1): 39–52.
49.
Van ZoonenLisbeth. 2005. Entertaining the Citizen: When Politics and Popular Culture Converge. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield.
