One thing the internet has become very good at is giving everyone an outlet to voice their opinions, and nothing quite draws out the opinions of the masses like the spectacle of the rich, famous and (this next point is often hotly debated) talented. Anecdotal evidence shows that a huge amount of people who tune in to watch award shows partake in live-blogging or live-tweeting the experience - They keep their followers updated on their opinions of the show by posting their thoughts as they come to them, essentially giving a live play by play of the awards from their perspective.
Often providing hilarious insight, these live-blogs can be a hot-bed of discussion, drawing in people who either can't or don't want to watch the shows live - or not at all. Not everyone wants to sit through close to four hours of celebrities patting each other on the back, but the online discussion generated by the awards ensures that they aren't going to be left culturally clueless when all their friends are talking about is Taylor Swift's dress and how Kanye almost did a repeat of his infamous "Imma let you finish" interruption on behalf of Beyonce missing out on Album of the Year.
Variety ran an article analysing what moments got the most people talking during the Grammys. 17 million individual people had 45 million interactions related to the awards show over Facebook while it was being broadcast live. Most people talked about AC/DC rocking the opening, Madonna's performance and Sam Smith's big win for Record of the Year. On Twitter there were 20.9 million tweets during the show, earning a collective 1.6 billion views. In terms of tweets per minute, the most popular topics again included Madonna's performance and Sam Smith's four wins, while the most-tweeted moment came when Beck won Album of the Year and Kanye almost ruined the moment (again). Beyonce, Ed Sheeran and Iggy Azalea were also popular celebrities in the Twitterverse on Sunday.
So why is it that so many millions of viewers feel the need to share their thoughts online? It may be that the bloggers simply enjoy interacting with the shows in such a way, and who can blame them when their opinions are validated by others who agree. Even if their opinion isn't a popular one, it can lead to a discussion which allows them to interact with the content they're consuming in an active way. This generation can certainly not be described as passive consumers of music, movies, television shows, or the awards ceremonies celebrating them. They actively engage themselves with the things they enjoy, and are sometimes rewarded for their passion by having the world they're talking about talk back to them.
A close friend of mine is a huge fan of a certain blonde starlet who is currently owning the radio waves, and was excitedly following her time at the Grammys on popular blogging platform Tumblr. You can't imagine her excitement when, in the middle of the awards show, this singer started following her blog. In other cases what started as someone sharing their opinion about a particular moment can gain so much popularity it becomes an internet meme.
Sometimes the celebrity reactions to the awards are more entertaining than the awards themselves. As shown in this article in The Guardian and this folio from NY Daily News, celebrities really don't seem so different to the rest of us when they're sharing their thoughts in a 140 character tweet or filtered Instagram picture... Even if it's a tad more glamorous than watching Foxtel from your couch.
Just as the awards influence their audience, so to can the audience influence the awards. There's been an undeniable trend over the last couple of years of biographies and autobiographies; so what is it about movies 'based a true story' that's led to their resurgence in popularity?
In 2013 three based-on-real-events movies were nominated at the Oscars and edge-of-your-seat CIA themed Argo took out the win. In 2014 that number was increased to six and 12 Years a Slave won the Best Picture Oscar.
The trend is continuing this year. The Theory of Everything, a biopic based on the school years of scientist Stephen Hawking and his relationship with first wife Jane, won four Baftas on Sunday. The Imitation Game, which tells the story of the brilliant Alan Turing and the way he and his team cracked the Enigma Code to greatly aid Britain's efforts in the Second World War, was nominated for nine Baftas. And these British films aren't the only true life stories drawing acclaim this year; of the eight movies nominated for the Best Movie Oscar, five are auto/biographical, and four out of the five nominees for Best Actor were playing real people.
Lecturer Sally O'Reilly puts forth an interesting hypothesis as to why this may be the case: in the age of digital narcissism, where everything is recorded digitally in the format of a timeline that we can browse through at any stage, many people are now able to view their lives as a tangible narrative. As O'Reilly says, "If you see yourself as the star of your own movie, it's gratifying to see 'real people' doing the same thing on the big screen."
Studios are cashing in on this by hiring social media experts to make sure they get ultimate online exposure, running algorithms and tracking what's trending.
The often controversial nature of 'based on a true story' movies also breeds discussion, and anything that gets people interested in and talking about a movie is good, even if they're not saying particularly friendly things. American Sniper, Selma, Big Eyes and Foxcatcher have all been criticised for inaccuracies, but they're still drawing in crowds.
With Hollywood's night of nights happening on the 22nd of February there's no doubt that social media discussion is going to continue throughout the month as people talk about the wins and losses that have already occurred and speculate about those that have yet to have happened. What about you, are you involved in live blogging or tweeting? Do you feel like the popularity of platforms like Twitter has increased the popularity of awards shows, or simply given the already-existing audience a visible platform for the first time? You can let us know on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.
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