Bridging social capital matters to Social TV viewing: Investigating the impact of social constructs on program loyalty
Introduction
Social TV (STV) is the convergence between social media and TV, which has increased viewers’ connectivity and content engagement via social media interactions (Proulx and Shepatin, 2012). Social media provides backchannels to empower audiences for two-way interactivity during video viewing (Lin and Chiang, 2017). The affordances of social media allow users to connect with others beyond connected social groups or nearby locations (Ariel and Avidar, 2015). Twitter discussions about TV programs and their sponsors are able to garner large audiences and trigger desirable actions related to TV viewing such as improved ratings (Nagy and Midha, 2014). According to Quintas-Froufe and Gonzalez-Neira (2014), STV interactions generate a social audience, a fragmentation of TV audiences discussing video content on social media; these exchanges create social media communities about programs can foster viewer loyalty and show longevity. Nagy and Midha (2014, p.448) categorized these “earned audiences” into active viewers (responding to TV programs or advertising via social media) and passive viewers (exposing themselves to online conversations). The majority of STV viewers tweeted to maintain community connectivity (Mouton, 2014). Realizing the importance of participatory viewership, TV producers and advertisers make increasing efforts to encourage users’ sharing of TV-related content on social media and forming of fan communities (Highfield et al., 2013) to influence users’ content selection and viewing habits.
Multiscreen videos and new TV-like services that shape audiences’ cross-platform viewing behaviors have been flourishing in recent years (Lin, 2019). To reflect the latest audiovisual ecosystem, this study defines STV as using social media platforms (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, and mobile instant messages or applications) to discuss conventional TV programs or professionally made online videos (e.g., Netflix and YouTube channels). Apart from the audiovisual industry’s attention to STV, several scholars have examined various factors (e.g., innovation characteristics and personal traits) affecting attitudes of STV users (Shin, 2013). Social affordances are salient predictors for users’ acceptance and intention to use STV (Shin and Kim, 2015, Shin, 2017). Past STV system studies found that perceived sociability could enhance user participation and support social interaction (Chorianopoulos and Lekakos, 2008, Geerts and Grooff, 2009), while recent research identified perceived social presence as a key factor affecting viewers’ commitment and loyalty of using social media for discussing TV channels (Hwang and Lim, 2015). Social exchange crucially determines intention to use STV applications (Krämer et al., 2015). Given that STV users, regardless of geographical or socioeconomic proximity, tend to exchange video-related opinions with others via Twitter or Facebook, they are likely to experience bridging social capital, which results from the use of social media in reaching out to weak-ties and obtaining informational varieties through heterogeneous networks (Ellison et al., 2007).
Scholars in western countries have extensively scrutinized the impacts of STV for a number of years, after the TV industry discovered how social media interactions (e.g., Twitter and Facebook discussions) could boost TV ratings and improve user engagement. However, this important topic has been relatively overlooked in Asian context till 2015. This present study was the first in Singapore. To the best of our knowledge, scholarly effort has scarcely focused on the relationship between social affordances of STV and social capital. None has regarded social capital as a mediator shaping STV users’ viewing outcomes. Additionally, past STV studies did not focus on investigating STV users viewing professionally made videos (e.g, broadcasters, Cable TV, Internet TV, mobile TV, or OTT videos) while using social media sites (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, or Whatsapp). Accordingly, this study constructed a theoretical framework to analyze a national web survey dataset with two-fold research purposes to fill the gaps: First, it investigates the associations between STV’s social affordances (e.g., sociability and social presence) and bridging social capital. Second, the framework also studies the relationship of STV’s social affordances and bridging social capital with STV viewer loyalty and program commitment, two crucial concepts in marketing communication for the improvement of viewership and audience engagement. The findings will remain valid because using STV gains increasing popularity over the past few years and will capture the interest of academics and media practitioners. On the one hand, this study untangles the complex interrelationship of social constructs associated with users’ perceptions of STV and their effects on viewers’ loyalty to professionally made videos. The findings extend both Social Capital Theory and Social Presence Theory. On the other hand, the users’ insights will shed light to the significance of social affordances in creating, promoting, and distributing multiscreen video contents and services, which will assist video operators and advertisers in engaging numerous social audiences and making strategies to increase viewer loyalty to cultural products or brands.
Using a roadmap of what is to come next, the following literature review section elaborates on previous research related to this STV study’s key variables (sociability, social presence, bridging social capital, commitment, and program loyalty) and proposes empirically testable hypotheses. The third section describes the web survey’s data collection, and specifies measurements and data analysis. The fourth section presents the results of the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) and mediation analysis. The final section concludes and discusses salient findings, as well as states implications and limitations.
Section snippets
Literature review
When MIT Technology Review selected STV as one of the breakthrough emerging technologies in 2010, it referred to an integrated system for shared TV experiences (Chorianopoulos and Lekakos, 2008). After the fast diffusion of social media, STV was later transformed into a convergent augmentation of using Twitter or Facebook while video viewing, which gained increasing attention from industry players and academia (Hwang and Lim, 2015, Krämer et al., 2015, Lin and Chiang, 2017, Proulx and Shepatin,
Data collection and respondent profile
Singapore, which ranked top of the Word Economic Forum's Networked Readiness Index, is regarded as one of the digital advanced countries (DNA, 2017). According to hashmeta, Singapore has 85% social media penetration rate in 2019 and 70% of Singaporeans are active social media users (Nhu, 2018). The same report shows that YouTube is the most viewed social media platform, with four million users in the country. Under conservative traditional media under tight content regulation, lots of
Descriptive findings
In general, the respondents spent an average of 10.62 hours (SD = 14.20) on using social media for video-related matters on a weekly basis. They primarily used mobile instant messaging applications (e.g. WhatsApp, WeChat, and Line) (M = 3.92 / 5, SD = 0.95) and SNS (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) (M = 3.52 / 5, SD = 1.05) to discuss with others during video viewing. Respondents’ social media interactions during video viewing occurred most frequently when they watched news (M = 3.28 / 5,
Discussion and conclusion
As emerging STV phenomenon has a steady but gradual growth in Singapore, this study pioneers the investigation on the relationships and mediation effects among STV social affordances (i.e. bridging social capital, social presence, and perceived sociability), program commitment and loyalty. The national web survey focuses on examining STV users with prior experiences in using social media while viewing professionally made multiscreen videos (e.g., broadcasters, Cable TV, and OTT). This research
Declaration of Competing Interest
Author declares that there is no conflict of interest.
Trisha T.C. Lin (Ph.D., University of Hawaii, Manoa) is the associate professor at Department of Radio and Television, National Chengchi University, Taiwan. She is also the associate researcher of Taiwan Institute for Governance and Communication Research. In addition to a former broadcasting media professional, she previously worked as the assistant professor at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Her research interests focus on examining emerging interactive digital media with two
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Trisha T.C. Lin (Ph.D., University of Hawaii, Manoa) is the associate professor at Department of Radio and Television, National Chengchi University, Taiwan. She is also the associate researcher of Taiwan Institute for Governance and Communication Research. In addition to a former broadcasting media professional, she previously worked as the assistant professor at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Her research interests focus on examining emerging interactive digital media with two approaches: socio-technical system analysis and socio-psychological user research. She published journal articles regarding mobile media and communication, new media convergence, digital journalism and health communication.
Yi-hsuan Chiang (Ph.D. National Taiwan Normal University) is an associate professor at Radio-TV-Film, Shih Hsin University, Taiwan. Her research interests are in the areas of new media user behavior, including social media, mobile communication, and big data. She also served as a consultant in InsightXplorer and BeamMedia for digital media research and infographics.
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