Chapter 1 – Introduction
Media is normally considered as the medium through which general public gets information, coverage and other details of an important event that took place someplace else. Initially, the media was print media that only covered events already happened hence there was no possibility of live coverage. Media evolved from print to electronic after invention of radio. The electronic media further boosted when television was invented and sold commercially. Live coverage of events is an important aspect of electronic media that has resulted in booming the event industry. In last couple of decades, internet has boosted a lot due to large number of users worldwide. Social media has evolved as the result of introduction of internet to common user. Social media has also been used for coverage of live events.
A number of events are arranged annually for awarding stars in a variety of fields for their spectacular performances. These events are commonly known as award shows. Live coverage of award shows during last century resulted in boosting the event industry and these award shows; however, with the advent of social media, it has been questioned whether social media has affected the award shows and event industry in a positive or negative manner. The aim of this paper is to explore various effects of media coverage on award shows with a special focus on social media.
Grammy Awards is the biggest award show in the music industry that is held every year. More than 100 Grammy Awards are distributed each year to a variety of categories. The case study chosen for this research focuses on the comparison of 52nd Grammy Awards held in year 2010 and 58th Grammy Awards held in year 2016. The significance of choosing Grammy Awards of year 2010 is that it was the first time in the history when the award show was broadcasted on social media as well as electronic media. The award show was held on 31st January, 2010 in Staples Centre (LA).
Chapter 2 - Literature Review
The aim of carrying out this study is to explore the effects of media coverage on the popularity of award shows and event industry. Following three objectives are the basis of this study:-
Exploring positive and/or negative effects of media coverage on popularity of award shows
Exploring positive and/or negative effects of media coverage on event industry
Comparing effects of social media in relation to traditional media.
A brief literature review has been presented in this paper after going through a detailed literature on the subject of media coverage of award shows. Media is considered as a medium through which information, coverage and other details of an important event that took place someplace else is communicated to general public. In initial stage of its development, media was print media that only covered events already happened hence there was no possibility of live coverage. Print media consists of newspaper, magazines and other printed form of documents published commercially.
Event industry pertains to arrangement of events through effective utilisation of resources . This industry has recently boomed due to introduction of a large number of shows etc. . The event industry is greatly affected by media coverage as media coverage of the event results in shaping the perception of the viewer about the event .
Media evolved from print to electronic after invention of radio. The electronic media further boosted when television was invented and sold commercially. Live coverage of events is an important aspect of electronic media that has resulted in booming the event industry. In last couple of decades, internet has boosted a lot due to large number of users worldwide. Social media has evolved as the result of introduction of internet to common user. Social media has also been used for coverage of live events.
Dayan and Katz (2009) discussed about media coverage through TV in their book Media Events: The Live Broadcasting of History. The authors have extensively discussed a large number of media events in the history of television that were broadcasted on a large scale. The authors have also discussed various genres of television events including award shows .
Social media has been active in supporting many events and covering several shows but award shows ranked top in the list of the year 2013-2014. The current year’s schedule of Emmy Awards 2014 were planned to be accommodated for the coverage of the NFL. Therefore the award show’s audience was observed to be strong in the last season. Though, the circumstances have revolutionized during the recent years. Some time back the award shows had dramatically weak ratings that were on top recently. The assessing bodies also feared that the award shows would become extraneous to the current viewership along with the beauty contest and variety shows.
Academy awards received viewership of 32 million people in 2008 that marked the least spectators in the history of shows. Moreover, the second least viewership was observed by the Grammy Awards show in the same year 2008 marking 17.2 million observers in the last 3 decades. Since year 1990, Emmy Awards in 2008 marked the lowest record viewership of 12.3 million spectators on average that was a decline of 33% viewers from year 2005. Furthermore, 14.9 million audiences recorded in 2009 for the Golden Globes was also under the list of lowest records since it reverted to the broadcasting in 1996 on the TV. It was clearly seen that award shows were in a mess and for this frequent crumbling situation; there was no potential for its viewership in the coming era.
However, social media appeared as a strong force against this breakup with the excitement of live shows that catered the audiences with the popular personalities. These award shows achieved significant fondness and elevated the ratings of this genre in the year 2013-2014 bringing a notable attraction not only to the spectators but also to the advertisers and sponsors .
The role of social media in the recent season has been effective in displaying the award season and the major talks have been plugging up for the contending movies . Most of the entertainment diligence including the baby boomers and the older audience may be steady towards the excitement but social media is clinched with the organizers and producers of the awards and the genres . However, there is hard work lingering in the industry to lift and promote the social media coverage with joint efforts and it is enriching at the moment .
Social media has been phenomenal in convincing the organisations and networks that award shows are receiving exceptional ratings so far . The content of the kudocasts has also been a ladder to attain the high revenue levels. Award shows like Oscar, SAG and Golden Globes have been popular among public and therefore receiving high ratings, in spite the TV spectators mature to split. Although it cannot be verified along with strong evidence that social media is the main cause behind the enlargement but stimulation can be clearly observed and the issue will be resulted soon by the compiled findings of the Nielsen and McKinsey in Incite.
The CMO (chief marketing officer of Incite), Pete Blackshaw commented that award shows have attracted the bunch of audiences and there are unmatched conversations on the media about the kudocasts along with the bundles of tweets .
The mix of social networking and the kudocasts have turned out to be an amazing combination in highlighting the award shows which has been a traditional happening promoted by a fashionable medium. The director of Academy’s marketing, Janet Weiss also mentioned regarding the perception of their image and wanted to hold on to honest image on what they are with the genuine tone. They wanted to rebuff their dull and boring image.
The Acad idea, followed the downloading by the 500,000 users which was an iphone app designated for the Oscar awards of 2010. It is indented to re-launch the app in the following two months and make it persistent for the users. All the networks and events have put in unique efforts in the social media.
NBC.com came up with the launch of in house social group in the spring of 2010 under the name of Fan It, it allowed the audience to pile up points for entering in the competition and get victorious tickets to the events of NBC such as occupying bleacher seats in the Emmys of 2010. Peacock exec was also amazed with the extensive fan responses.
SAG awards and other similar small events had to struggle for the coverage by the TV and press which streams out straight away for the Oscar awards. Social media has facilitated the fans for connecting the events straight to fans and subtract the middleman. Also, the SAG website consists of a popular blog in 2009 glued on the MySpace earlier by the SAG awards.
In the year 2009, Golden Globes and Facebook collaborated a live streaming of the “blue carpet” through the site along with the pre-show . The viewership of the telecast gained momentum in 192 countries via Facebook membership, much higher than presented in HFPA. Ira Mayer, Entertainment Marketing Letter publisher states that this commitment with the shows is the miracle of the social media.
Mayer also uncovered the stories of the parties that were conducted for screening awards similarly they are carried for the sports like Super Bowl. Distances don’t keep people apart, the excitement has the forum to be shared and delivered among the circle and friends. The existence of this fast media has allowed the individuals to react and response to the situations at a faster pace than before.
The strength of social media has also revealed the stories behind the scenes and fans can have easy access to the covered stories that engages the viewer and tie him with the event closely along with the attraction for the advertiser . The increased demand of the online tie-ins recorded before the show has also elevated the network revenues. The announcement of nominations till the after-parties, keep the advertisers intact and it not only benefits the show but also broaden the worth of the ad . Therefore, tie-ins are good attraction for the advertisers for the award shows.
The efforts of Acad and HFPA have also extended for assigning extra resources to the social media. Karen Lucy, An expert of social media was also hired for the Globes by the HFPA. One more advantage of the social networking and viewer engagement is that it allows recent updates: there is a direct connection of the fans with the show team for receiving a thumbs up or appreciation in real-time .
Grammy Awards has been chosen for this study in order to answer the research questions. This show is the biggest award show in the music industry that is held every year. More than 100 Grammy Awards are distributed each year to a variety of categories. The case study chosen for this research focuses on the comparison of 52nd Grammy Awards held in year 2010 and 58th Grammy Awards held in year 2016. The significance of choosing Grammy Awards of year 2010 is that it was the first time in the history when the award show was broadcasted on social media as well as electronic media.
Chapter 3 - Theoretical Framework
Deductive approach has been chosen as the research design for this study. The reason behind choosing such research design is that the study is based on a case study of an award show with the historical data of two events of the award show separated by around 5-6 years. The comparison of the data would result in deducing results to achieve the research goals. This research design would be quite helpful in obtaining answers to the following research questions:-
Does media coverage effect positively and/or negatively on popularity of award shows?
Does media coverage effect positively and/or negatively on event industry?
What is the difference between coverage of award shows through traditional and social media?
Exploring answers to the abovementioned questions would result in achieving the study goals as defined in the literature review chapter. The data required to carry out the research will be obtained through online sources amongst which few would be from the social networking websites like twitter and Facebook. Various other secondary sources that will be used in this research include statistics, online websites, and journal articles.
There are few limitations to the study based on the theoretical framework that will be followed in this research. Since the research will be based on existing literature and a case study that will be developed through online sources, the research would be dependent on the available concepts and theories. Furthermore, the research will be dependent on the online data pertaining to the case study that would be acquired through social networking websites which update on regular basis and the authenticity of the data is not 100% verifiable.
The statistics available on social networking websites are mostly based on individual opinions and not on official or scholarly research. Lack of primary evidence would be there in the study due to carrying out only secondary research.
Chapter 4 - Methodology
The data to be collected for this research will be taken from online sources including social networking websites that serve the purpose of social media. Various other online sources could be blogs by various individuals using social networking websites or maintaining those blogs for the purpose of interacting with people in a social manner while conveying their message. Another source includes statistics on the case study from official website of the award show under study. General opinion of the public will also be taken from the existing content available on the social media.
The choice of research design is fundamentally of deductive method in which the arguments will be built on the basis of the available data and the results will be deduced through analysing the data and building relationship between the results and the reviewed literature. This choice of research design is chosen because the study is based on a case study of an award show with the historical data of two events of the award show separated by around 5-6 years. The comparison of the data would result in deducing results to achieve the research goals. This choice of research design would be quite helpful in obtaining answers to the research questions.
The research methodology is primarily secondary research; therefore, the research will rely on the existing literature and data already published. The research will mostly include secondary data from the literature reviewed and the statistics available online. There will not be any primary research in the study which means that there would be no direct interviewing or survey taking. This means that the research is highly dependent on the data already available on various sources.
The primary focus for data pertaining to traditional media and event industry would be data obtaining through journal articles, websites, and books. On the other hand, data pertaining to social media will be taken from social networking websites and other similar online sources.
The data obtained from various sources would be both qualitative and quantitative. In case of reviewed literature, the data is purely quantitative due to the fact that the reviewed literature depicts the results of the studies already carried out by various researchers. On the other hand, the data obtained through social media sources and other statistics websites etc. would be of quantitative nature thus allowing statistical analysis to be carried out on the researched data.
The statistical techniques used in this study would be linear regression and would predict the future of media coverage based on the past trend as obtained from the qualitative data obtained from social media and other online sources.
Through the study of literature, it is evident that a large number of population has moved from traditional media to electronic media and then to social media. The deduction that can be made from this point is that people who liked traditional media, liked electronic media more and people who liked electronic media, liked social media more.
This also tells an interesting point that there is clear chance that a large number of people, who did not like traditional media, were attracted by electronic media that resulted in increasing the popularity of events covered by the media. Similarly, there is clear chance that a large number of people, who did not like electronic media, were attracted by social media that resulted in increasing the popularity of events covered by the media.
The abovementioned arguments, deduced from the reviewed literature, lead the study towards the direction of answering the three research questions in following manner”-
Does media coverage effect positively and/or negatively on popularity of award shows?
Media coverage has positive effects on the popularity of award shows because the number of people viewing these shows have increased with each change of media from traditional to electronic and then to social media.
Does media coverage effect positively and/or negatively on event industry?
Media coverage has positive effects on the event industry because the number of people viewing these shows have increased with each change of media from traditional to electronic and then to social media. Moreover, the event industry has grown to include more and more award shows.
What is the difference between coverage of award shows through traditional and social media?
Traditional media is controlled by a governing body that outlines the rules regarding coverage of events and implements strong censorship whereas there is no restriction on any type of content sharing on social media. The only option that the users have on social media is the option to block a person or report the content based on various reasons. However, this options does not stop the individual sharing the information to stop sharing the content with general public in the first place.
This shows that social media does not have any preventive measures on the content rather it has corrective measures due to which freedom of speech has been exercised on social media way more as compared to traditional media.
The data chosen to develop the case study for the research is for year 2010 for an award show when it was first broadcasted on social media and then in the year 2016 in order to see the growth of the fan following on the social media. The data from 2010 Grammy award show is not out of date since the data has been taken from official website of the Grammy Awards.
A sample of secondary data includes total tweets on an event, following of tweets by fans, and total fan following of the award show etc. The data will be collected for the year 2010 and the year 2016 award shows in order to develop a comparison of the effects of social media on the popularity of the award show during past 6 years. This would enable the research to move towards answering the three research questions as already identified.
Grammy Awards is the biggest award show in the music industry that is held every year. More than 100 Grammy Awards are distributed each year to a variety of categories. The case study chosen for this research focuses on the comparison of 52nd Grammy Awards held in year 2010 and 58th Grammy Awards held in year 2016. The significance of choosing Grammy Awards of year 2010 is that it was the first time in the history when the award show was broadcasted on social media as well as electronic media. The award show was held on 31st January, 2010 in Staples Centre (LA). The eligibility period for the nominations was between 1st October, 2008 and 31st August, 2009 .
The Recording Academy (TRA) took the initiative to broadcast the show on both social and electronic media. The fans of Grammy Awards were seen highly active during the show and were constantly sharing content and news pertaining to the show. A high level of social media engagement was observed on social networking websites including twitter and Facebook. People posted stories pertaining to the award show on their blogs and posts.
Live video streaming was available online on the social networking websites. This enabled a number of people to get updates and live coverage in their cars, offices, and outdoors. Previously, live coverage only on television resulted in restricting people to the home in order to avoid missing any important event in the award show.
Social media brought live streaming to the people on their cell phones and laptops etc. without having the need to restrict themselves at home to view full coverage of the award show .
The official YouTube channel of Grammys received in excess of 6 Million viewers viewing the videos of the event just after one week of the event. This number further doubled in less than a month time. This shows a high level of interest by the fans to view event coverage through online means .
The award show was held on 15th February, 2016 in Staples Centre (LA). The eligibility period for the nominations was between 1st October, 2014 and 30th September, 2015 . The 58th Grammy Awards show a total of 25,300 tweets with a following of 19,800 on these tweets. The official page of Grammys on twitter has 2.73 Million followers. These statistics show a high level of social media following by the fans of the award show .
Chapter 5 - Findings and Analysis
Grammy Awards is the biggest award show in the music industry that is held every year. More than 100 Grammy Awards are distributed each year to a variety of categories. The case study chosen for this research focuses on the comparison of 52nd Grammy Awards held in year 2010 and 58th Grammy Awards held in year 2016. The significance of choosing Grammy Awards of year 2010 is that it was the first time in the history when the award show was broadcasted on social media as well as electronic media.
The award show was held on 31st January, 2010 in Staples Centre (LA). On the other hand, during past 6 years, the award show was held on 15th February, 2016 in Staples Centre (LA). The 58th Grammy Awards show a total of 25,300 tweets with a following of 19,800 on these tweets. It is evident from the case study that the social media following has been on the rise in past few years since the official page of Grammys on twitter has gained 2.73 Million followers. These statistics show a high level of social media following by the fans of the award show. This clearly shows that the social media has brought popularity to the award shows and event industry .
The data chosen to develop the case study for the research is for year 2010 for an award show when it was first broadcasted on social media and then in the year 2016 in order to see the growth of the fan following on the social media. The data from 2010 Grammy award show is not out of date since the data has been taken from official website of the Grammy Awards.
A sample of secondary data included total tweets on an event, following of tweets by fans, and total fan following of the award show etc. The data will be collected for the year 2010 and the year 2016 award shows in order to develop a comparison of the effects of social media on the popularity of the award show during past 6 years. This would enable the research to move towards answering the three research questions as already identified.
The chosen case study of Grammy Awards has brought useful insights to the effects of social media on the award shows and event industry. Since the following of award show in the case study has increased rapidly after advent of social media; therefore, it is deduced that media coverage and especially social media has increased the popularity of award shows. It can also be deduced from the case study that the event took place with more popularity so the event industry grew as the result of this popularity. Therefore, the media coverage of award shows has resulted in positively affecting event industry.
Traditional media is controlled by a governing body that outlines the rules regarding coverage of events and implements strong censorship whereas there is no restriction on any type of content sharing on social media. The only option that the users have on social media is the option to block a person or report the content based on various reasons. However, this options does not stop the individual sharing the information to stop sharing the content with general public in the first place. This clearly shows that social media does not have any preventive measures on the content rather it has corrective measures due to which freedom of speech has been exercised on social media way more as compared to traditional media.
Chapter 6 - A Reflexive Conclusion
Initially, the media was print media that only covered events already happened hence there was no possibility of live coverage. Media evolved from print to electronic after invention of radio. The electronic media further boosted when television was invented and sold commercially. Live coverage of events is an important aspect of electronic media that has resulted in booming the event industry.
In last couple of decades, internet has boosted a lot due to large number of users worldwide. Social media has evolved as the result of introduction of internet to common user. Social media has also been used for coverage of live events. A number of events are arranged annually for awarding stars in a variety of fields for their spectacular performances. These events are commonly known as award shows. Live coverage of award shows during last century resulted in boosting the event industry and these award shows; however, with the advent of social media, it has been questioned whether social media has affected the award shows and event industry in a positive or negative manner.
Grammy Awards is the biggest award show in the music industry that is held every year. More than 100 Grammy Awards are distributed each year to a variety of categories. The case study chosen for this research focuses on the comparison of 52nd Grammy Awards held in year 2010 and 58th Grammy Awards held in year 2016. The significance of choosing Grammy Awards of year 2010 is that it was the first time in the history when the award show was broadcasted on social media as well as electronic media. The award show was held on 31st January, 2010 in Staples Centre (LA).
Deductive approach has been chosen as the research design for this study. The reason behind choosing such research design is that the study is based on a case study of an award show with the historical data of two events of the award show separated by around 5-6 years. The comparison of the data would result in deducing results to achieve the research goals. This research design would be quite helpful in obtaining answers to the following research questions:-
Media coverage has positive effects on popularity of award shows since the results in the study show that the popularity of award shows have increased after introduction of each new type of media.
Media coverage has positive effects on popularity of award shows since the results in the study show that the event industry has grown substantially after introduction of each new type of media.
Social media has resulted in more open and disclosed effects on the media coverage of award shows as compared to traditional media as evident from the results. This is due to the fact that there is lesser control of content shared through social media.
Traditional media is controlled by a governing body that outlines the rules regarding coverage of events and implements strong censorship whereas there is no restriction on any type of content sharing on social media. The only option that the users have on social media is the option to block a person or report the content based on various reasons. However, this options does not stop the individual sharing the information to stop sharing the content with general public in the first place.
This shows that social media does not have any preventive measures on the content rather it has corrective measures due to which freedom of speech has been exercised on social media way more as compared to traditional media.
Media coverage has positive effects on the popularity of award shows because the number of people viewing these shows have increased with each change of media from traditional to electronic and then to social media. Media coverage has positive effects on the event industry because the number of people viewing these shows have increased with each change of media from traditional to electronic and then to social media. Moreover, the event industry has grown to include more and more award shows.
Further research in the field can be taken with the aim to explore the reasons behind the high level of popularity of social media for media coverage of award shows. Such research can be targeted towards exploring three major reasons with the help of both primary and / or secondary data. The three major reasons may include ease of access, storage of content and freedom of speech and expression.
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