Public Service Media and Social TV: Crossing the

boundary between professional and

collaborative production through ABC’s #7DaysLater

Public Service Media and Social TV: Crossing the

boundary between professional and

collaborative production through ABC’s #7DaysLater

Jonathon Hutchinson, University of Sydney@dhutchman

Jonathon Hutchinson, University of Sydney@dhutchman

RIPE Conference, Keio University Japan, 28 August 2014RIPE Conference, Keio University Japan, 28 August 2014

Embedded in ‘old’ mediaIs it participation of interactive?

The reception of the audience requires more attention

Participation benefits all

Problematic Problematic ParticipationParticipation

Carpentier, 2009Carpentier, 2009

Professional quality

&

Social relevance

Social TVSocial TV

“the interactions among other viewers and between viewers, the characters, and the producers of the show enabled by the ‘second-screen’ practice”

“the interactions among other viewers and between viewers, the characters, and the producers of the show enabled by the ‘second-screen’ practice”

((Giglietto and Selva, 2014: 260Giglietto and Selva, 2014: 260))

Social TVSocial TV

“a metaphorical ‘watercooler’ in the cloud, but one where the watercooler conversations take place instantly, rather than at work the following

morning”

“a metaphorical ‘watercooler’ in the cloud, but one where the watercooler conversations take place instantly, rather than at work the following

morning”

(Harrington et al. 2013: 405)

Image: ABC, CC BY NCImage: ABC, CC BY NC

“the application of the principles of universality of availability, universality of appeal, provision for minorities, education of the public, distance from vested interests, quality programming standards, program maker independence, fostering of the public sphere”

PSB Reithian values:PSB Reithian values:

(Cunningham, 2013: 62)(Cunningham, 2013: 62)

“it is better to understand the ABC and SBS as public service media

organizations, rather than public service broadcasters”

““The ABC and SBS have The ABC and SBS have the potential to the potential to be be content innovatorscontent innovators in in the provision of news the provision of news and information in the and information in the ways that ways that utilise UCC utilise UCC (user-created content)(user-created content) strategiesstrategies””

Flew et al., Flew et al., 2008: 22008: 2

““Communications Minister Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has also Stephen Conroy has also announced the ABC and SBS announced the ABC and SBS charters will be updated charters will be updated to take into account to take into account their their online and digital online and digital contentcontent..””

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-12/conroy-announces-media-reforms/4567550

#7DaysLater is a program #7DaysLater is a program

““…taking comedy to the …taking comedy to the

scary arena of interactive scary arena of interactive

storytelling where the storytelling where the

audience gets to write the audience gets to write the

brief via social mediabrief via social media for for

each weekly episode that each weekly episode that

will air just seven days will air just seven days

later on ABC2later on ABC2””

(ABC, 2013).(ABC, 2013).

Challenges

Opportunities

The AudienceVisibilityCut Through

Growing Digital

ExperimentThink Titles

Invest in up & coming talent

Richard HuddlestonRichard HuddlestonSupervising Executive Producer, ABC TVSupervising Executive Producer, ABC TV

The Work PipelineThe Work Pipeline

1. @7DaysLaterTV

2. @Daley_Pearson

3. @HarrisonTheFan

4. @MWhalan

5. @henry_and_aaron

6. @bajopants

7. @ABC2

8. @WASHINGTONx

9. @JordanRasko

10. @tomandalex

1. #7DaysLater

2. #qanda

3. #ZandA

4. #spooky

5. #Animation

6. #FlightoftheConchords

7. #Western

8. #Hawaii

9. #ggtv

10. #zombie

“I eventually want to end up

writing and producing for film

and television and thought this

would be just a good experience

to start with. I mainly have a

background in writing and

directing for theatre and

handling social media (as a job),

so this was the perfect

crossover.”

@HarrisonThe Fan@HarrisonThe Fan

Social TV = The Disappearing National Social TV = The Disappearing National Boundary?Boundary?

““PSB 2.0 becomes a media PSB 2.0 becomes a media policy instrument policy instrument

(Syversten, 1999) based on a (Syversten, 1999) based on a set of normative values that set of normative values that

aims to fulfil the aims to fulfil the democratic, social and democratic, social and cultural needs of the cultural needs of the

society by society by transferring transferring traditional PSB ethos onlintraditional PSB ethos onlinee”” (Brevini, 2013, p. 31). (Brevini, 2013, p. 31).

Four normative criteria: Four normative criteria: citizenshipcitizenshipuniversalityuniversality

qualityqualitytrusttrust

PSB 2.0PSB 2.0

PSB 2.0PSB 2.0

It is problematic, beyond the

economical perspective, to

introduce PSB 2.0 through these

criteria for reasons including

liberal versus social democracy or

access and retrievability via

differing internet protocols in

different countries

Jonathon HutchinsonJonathon Hutchinsonjonathon.hutchinson@sydney.edu.aujonathon.hutchinson@sydney.edu.au