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Jordan White

Mrs. DeBock

English 4 Honors

06 March 2017

Social Media Impacting Broadcasting

In the past few years, social media has turned the broadcasting world upside down. Due

to its impact, broadcasting has been able to reach corners of the world that were once

unimaginable. New platforms have brought the broadcasting world to life, enabling photos,

videos, and information to be spread worldwide in a matter of seconds. This has taken the

industry to an entirely new level, making it more versatile and updated as the world changes by

the minute. Specifically, social medias influence on broadcasting has been able to increase

customer input and satisfaction, broadcasting rates, and unfortunately in some cases decrease the

amount of people tuning in to the traditional broadcasting platforms.

Through the use of social media, companies in the sports world have been able to reach

out to consumers for their input on new products and information. They have utilized this to

dramatically increase relationships that help satisfy the customer, along with increasing the

brands awareness worldwide (Do 1). The creation of this relationship helps to build a connection

between a wide base of customers and the company, therefore increasing the likelihood of the

consumer buying products and telling others about them. Broadcasting comes into play in this

association because on TV, large telecasts like ESPN can advertise for these companies, raising

awareness to their direct availability through social media. Also, multimedia platforms have

enabled customers to work on a one-on-one basis with the companies, which has been used a

large marketing tool over the past five years. In this way, new products have been made that are
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more customer satisfactory, simply due to the relationship that people have made through social

media (Do 2). Due to such a high trend in the use of apps like Twitter and Facebook, it has been

relatively easy for large brand corporations to connect with users all around the world to create

these new and improved items. Companies have become heavily reliant on this interconnection,

where most see it as a large step into the future of sales and broadcasting. Through an entirely

different view, customer input and satisfaction has skyrocketed over the past few years due to an

increase in awareness for womens athletics. It has been statistically proven that women get

much less coverage time on traditional telecast platforms compared to men. Although, the recent

introduction of social media has proven a strong platform for women to stand on and raise

awareness for this insufficiency (Vann 1). Women are now stepping more into the spotlight by

making inspirational videos and posts that encourage young girls to play sports and insist on

equality. Due to this, more women are logging on and taking part in this large movement. This

type of motivation is backed by large companies such as Nike and ESPN, which increases their

sales because all women involved see these corporations supporting their movement, so they are

going to purchase items from them. Through these ways of integration and relation, broadcasting

and customer satisfaction increase everyday.

In addition to an increase in customer satisfaction, broadcasting rates have also seen a

steady increase thanks to social media. The people whose sole job is to run athletic social media

pages encourage their followers to tune into TV programs to catch more information and live

streamed sports, just as they might online. The diction of these posts and how influential they are

is a big sway in the reaction of followers, and if done right, they will turn these people to tune

into their televisions (Lee and Kahle 7). In this, posts must be heavily influential, as well as

inviting and interesting in order to get people off of their phone screens to turn to the big screen.
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This has become an increasing trend, where people spent the majority of their time on their

phones, causing broadcasting viewer amounts and rates to steadily decrease. Although when

pages on social media push the idea of watching games and live stream broadcasts on the

television, people tend to listen. Another way that broadcasting is being heavily advertised in

media is through the use of IMC, or Integrated Marketing Communication. Through this, people

and sports brands are able to connect online and through television broadcasts to increase brand

identification (Watkins 1). This creates a strong identification with consumers and sports brands

through social media. Broadcasting plays a large role in this because without broadcasting, there

would be no information or possible connection. Local news stations and worldwide ones like

ESPN promote the use of social media to create this relationship, which keeps people coming

back to the big screen. In this way, social media and TV have a coexisting relationship to help

each other and continually increase the others rates and satisfaction ( Watkins 1). In turn, a

stronger brand identification is made, and this trade of influence is truly a winning situation for

everyone involved. With this in mind, it is seen that social media has a heavy impact on

increasing broadcasting rates more than ever before.

A final, and rather contrasting way that social media has affected broadcasting is that it

has, in some cases, drawn viewers away from the traditional TV screen to the online screen. Due

to the changes in social norm, people tend to be on their cell phones or computers much more

often than the time they spend sitting down and watching TV. As Jacobi suggests, people can

relatively become broadcasters themselves through the uses of apps like Facebook Live and

YouTube Live. This in turn moves people away from traditional broadcasting to live streams or

feeds online. When the power of news transmission is turned over to the public, they take it over

and run with it. With this, they do not see the need to rely on broadcasters when they can go to
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social media to find it out themselves. Although, Jacobi suggests ways for broadcasters and their

companies to get themselves out of this situation, which is adaptation to new video content. The

biggest proposal to this is being able to transform the broadcast to new video platforms, and then

be able to engage people through thorough curation. If encouraged, consumers will try new ideas

as long as it keeps up with the current wave of technology and streaming. In contrast, heavy

arguments still exist that social media is the new broadcasting. It is said that social media is more

of a harm than a help to the broadcasting industry, posing as a threat instead of an ally

(Marszalek 1). Due to more people turning to social media, they are staying away from the TV,

simply because they are around their phones all day, every day. Todays society is heavily

dependent on social media and using cell phones that TV is becoming less important, as a result,

broadcasting is struggling to keep up. Unfortunately, in some cases the amount of people tuning

in to the traditional broadcasting platforms is decreasing as social medias influence is heavily

rising.

In just the past few years, social medias influence on broadcasting has been able to

increase customer input and satisfaction, broadcasting rates, and unfortunately in some cases

decrease the amount of people tuning in to the traditional broadcasting platforms. Through

positive and negative effects, social media platforms have transformed the broadcasting industry

by bringing in new and enormous crowds from all over the globe. Men and women alike are

becoming increasingly interested in what is being casted on TV due to what is being advertised

online. This has caused the industry of newscast to soar to new heights, satisfying and innovating

customers like never before. With this, social media can be seen as having an overall positive

impact on the telecast industry.

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Works Cited

Do, Hyunji, et al. "Tiger Woods, Nike, and I Are (Not) Best Friends: How Brand's Sports

Sponsorship in Social-Media Impacts Brand Consumer's Congruity and Relationship

Quality." International Journal of Advertising, vol. 34, no. 4, Sept. 2015, p. 658.

EBSCOhost. 20 March 2017.

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Jacobi, Andreas. "Broadcasting 3.0." TVBEurope, Jan. 2017, p. 6. EBSCOhost. 20 March 2017.

Lee, Christopher and Lynn Kahle. "The Linguistics of Social Media: Communication of

Emotions and Values in Sport." Sport Marketing Quarterly, vol. 25, n'o. 4, Dec. 2016, p.

201. EBSCOhost. 21 March 2017.

Marszalek, Diana. "Broadcasters Face the Honest Truth: Stations Face Obstacle Course of Social

Media, Fake News, Staff Cuts to Stay Ahead." Broadcasting & Cable, no. 1, 2017, p. 24.

EBSCOhost. 20 March 2017.

Vann, Portia. "Changing the Game: The Role of Social Media in Overcoming Old Media's

Attention Deficit toward Women's Sport." Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media,

vol. 58, no. 3, Sept. 2014, pp. 438-455. EBSCOhost. 20 March 2017.

Watkins, Brandi. "An Integrated Approach to Sports Branding: Examining the Influence of

Social Media on Brand Outcomes." International Journal of Integrated Marketing

Communications, vol. 6, no. 2, Fall 2014, pp. 30-40. EBSCOhost. 20 March 2017.