Mark Doughty

Who is on your sofa?: TV audience communities and second screening social networks

Television viewing coupled with audience interaction through a second screen has gained popularity as second screen capable devices have become more pervasive and affordable. In this paper, we investigate the nature of television audiences which engage in second screen interactions. Two different television show audiences are explored though their message activity while using the Twitter social blogging service. Connections are made between users when retweeting messages or mentioning other users in a message. The networks of viewers which are formed when viewers connect through these means reveal different characteristics within the audience networks and imply that different motivations for second screening while watching television shows are in play.

Tagliatelle: social tagging to encourage healthier eating

This paper describes the design and initial evaluation of Tag-liatelle, a collaborative tagging application for encouraging healthier eating. Users photograph their own meals and upload these photos to a website, where fellow users anonymously tag them for content. Initial results suggest that tagging of food content is a popular activity. However, further work must be done to automate the extraction of valid nutritional information from the tags generated.

Tabletop Prototyping of Serious Games for 'Soft Skills' Training

Serious games offer a relatively low cost, highly engaging alternative to traditional forms of soft skills training. The current paper describes an approach taken to designing a serious game for the training of soft skills. A tabletop prototype of the game was created and evaluated with a group of 24 participants. Initial findings suggest that the game successfully created an environment in which it was advantageous to engage in appropriate collaborative decision making behaviors, as well as providing built-in opportunities for a tutor to guide under-performing groups.

Disinhibited abuse of othered communities by second-screening audiences

Second-screening and live-tweeting alongside broadcast television generates new concerns with respect to online abuse. We present an investigation into the nature of Twitter-facilitated second-screening posts relating to Thelmas Gypsy Girls, one of a series of controversial documentary programmes portraying the Irish Traveller community that have recently been aired by the UK public-service television broadcaster Channel 4. Sentiment analysis highlighted the general negativity of these posts whilst a detailed thematic inquiry revealed the often abusive and aggressive messages aimed directly at the community and individuals portrayed in the broadcast material. We discuss why users might be susceptible to exhibiting these behaviours, and the implications for the broadcast industry, and social TV designers and developers.

Online gaming and web-based communities: serious games for community development

Serious games take the compelling and creative aspects of traditional computer games and apply them for non-entertainment purposes. The development of serious online games could contribute to many web-located community developments. This paper explores the potential for serious online games for inclusion in web-based community developments and outlines a participatory design project which utilises online gaming technologies. We conclude that serious online games are a useful component in such developments, but that their design and development should take into account their potential users and that as people become more experienced and used to interacting with gaming technologies, the expectations for these types of interaction will rise.