Data Visualisations: Representing the Digital Audience

Across contemporary entertainment, ‘gossip’ is a constant feature and flows across a range of interfaces. The use of high-speed broadband and internet-enabled television sets (smart TVs) for movies, news, documentaries, and television programs, amongst other services—for the convenience of the listener/viewer at a time chosen by them (on-demand)—is vital to television’s survival through networked options. Individuals engage with a variety of increasingly interconnected technological devices. Moreover, user-generated content streamed online is proving popular for a number with photo and video sharing social site, Snapchat possibly the next big threat to not only TV but to Google and Facebook both. More recent predictions with reference to live television events, however, would see social media being particularly reinvigorating, especially from the perspective of audiences. In this talk then, I will explore today’s mediascape with particular reference to the HBO series Game of Thrones. I will present data visualisations that represent key spaces for discussion and commentary about such television programs in the context of the increased ubiquity of distribution platforms in which most of our daily activities and routines are carried out with the help of various forms of communication technologies via cloud computing and social networking.