social media

Social Media Muscles in on TV

The way we access content is fundamentally changing.  Shorter-form content continues to grow apace and, at the same time, viewing is fragmenting across myriad devices and screens.  Helping drive this change has been the emergence of a new generation of distribution platforms that blend professional video, user generated content and social media.

Social Media Platform Session: How Broadcasters and Platforms Are Working Together

Watch Matt Risley, MD of 4Studio, Channel 4, Lucy Luke, Head of UK Partnerships, Snap Inc, James Loveridge, Director of Entertainment, Little Dot Studios and Neil Price, Head of TV and Film, YouTube, discuss how broadcasters are collaborating with the tech businesses to reach new audiences and how the future of viewing is evolving.

Munya Chawawa on his new show exploring race in Britain, creating iconic sketches and his acting ambitions

Credit: Photography Charlie Cummings and styling Jessica Swanson

His sketches parody some of the biggest news stories from Boris Johnson’s Peppa Pig fumble to Matt Hancock’s extramarital affair. 

Chawawa’s newest project, Race Around Britain, sees him travel all around the UK to educate the nation about black culture and use comedy and wit to instigate open and honest conversations about race in Britain today.

Why did you want to create your new YouTube show Race Around Britain?

David Baddiel to present documentary on the effects of social media

Credit: BBC

Writer, comedian and self-confessed Twitter addict David Baddiel is exploring the impact social media has on people’s behaviour both on and offline. 

Baddiel recognises that there are positive reasons to use social media such as revolutionising communication, pushing social change forward and highlighting important issues.

However, there are also negatives to these platforms and areas where outrage and angry exchanges dominate.

Social media aids TV ascent

Big Narstie, host of his own successful Channel 4 show, was in particularly voluble form, joining the RTS Futures Zoom event from a car wash. Pinpointing the reasons for his success, he said: “I was in the right place at the right time”, adding that his “personality is just me”, and the same on- or off-screen. 

Big Narstie argued that he and his fellow panellists were “freaks of nature”, unconventional talents that TV didn’t usually embrace. 

BBC Three to air Reggie Yates drama Make Me Famous

Credit: BBC

The consequences of being pushed into the spotlight so suddenly is the main focus of the drama and tells the story of Billy (Tom Brittney), a young man who gets a shot at fame when he impresses the producers of a fictional reality show.

Billy is excited for his life to change, but a year after the show has aired he is struggling to balance his newfound fame, social media pressures and tabloid kiss and tells.

With his other co-stars enjoying thriving careers, Billy has to deal with strangers making assumptions about him and deeply buried insecurities coming to the surface.

E4 announces new digital commissions

Navi Lamba, Digital Commission Exec for E4, commented: “It’s been so brilliant harnessing all the creativity the lockdown has inspired in our indie partners.

“We’ve commissioned across a number of genres and a mixture of animation and live action, hearing the stories of real people across the country and those of well-known faces in comedy, music and TV and all are tailored to work best for our young audiences.”

 

Jess Kelly: Social media has a lot to offer TV and radio

RoI chair Agnes Cogan and Jess Kelly

Kelly, who covers technology both on air and online for the Independent Irish radio station, said that social media, while you “might not agree with what it has to say, never sleeps and is always engaging”.

She went on to outline what the multitude of different social media, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat, has to offer in TV and radio. As with many things in life, she added, posts offer “the good, the bad and the ugly”.