Social media seems to be impacting positively on televised events. That’s a common explanation for the sudden revival in big pop culture shows, which are seeing a turnaround in their dwindling ratings.

In 2009 the Grammys drew 19 million viewers, but that was up to 26 million this year, the Golden Globes’ ratings went up by 14%, and there have been bigger audiences than usual for events such as the Olympics and the Super Bowl.

The Oscars on March 7 will be one of the most watched shows of the year (it pulled 36 million viewers in 2009), and is for the first time using social media in its marketing campaign. It streamed the nominations live through Facebook, and will aggregate tweets from guests and workers at the event.

In practice, the organisers do not really need to manipulate social media to draw the crowds, even if they were able to. The Oscars is just the sort of “water-cooler” topic that will bring it to the attention of Facebook and Twitter users who otherwise might not have bothered with it.

Forrester analyst Josh Bernoff thinks that social media are amplifying this kind of activity. Author of Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies, Bernoff says that live experience now includes this sort of interaction, and that whatever else people are doing or talking about online, these events bring them together.

“The one thing that everybody knows they’re doing at the same time is watching the Olympics. The same thing applies to the Super Bowl or the Academy Awards – these are the sort of big tent pole event programs,” he says.

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