Remediating for 280 characters

By understanding the significance of media tools such as hashtags, I was able to direct my focus towards applying relevant topics and discussion terms that would evoke a strong thread of media specifically related to reality tv shows and reality media. Again, I made the effort to investigate the profiles of Australia’s most popular reality tv shows; Beauty and The Geek, Love Island and The Bachelor. By investigating the “BeautyandtheGeek” hashtag I was able to find a variety of comments from users that expressed their disapproval of 2021’s winning contestants for the show. These users began to question whether the winning team had been engineered to win the show from the minute that the show began to ensure that they would be victorious at the end. This is another valuable example of how media encourages the criticism of all media content, but particularly with reality tv, users are quick to judge what they are being presented and what impact is has upon themselves as consumers. After searching for the ”LoveIsland”, “TheBachelor” and the “BeautyandtheGeek” hashtags, I was quickly recommended a new set of hashtags to investigate including “Survivor”, “LoveIslandUK”, “TikTok” and “Instagram”. These hashtags lead me to another stream of vibrant, colourful posts that screamed the latest updates about the various tv shows. This style of media matched the style illustrated on news advertisements and tv programs in its ability to capture audiences’ attention almost immediately and keep them hooked on seemingly meaningless content. This paralleled media style perfectly shows how Twitter operates as a significantly successful platform for advertising and short-form content. As seen with various celebrity profiles, Twitter is used as an effective tool to bombard users with short but effective advertisements that get straight to the point; a practice that we can assume reality tv audiences are familiar with and in favor of. By analyzing the posts regarding reality tv on Twitter, it became apparent that loyal watchers of reality shows such as Love Island preferred to simply “like” and post and then “retweet” it, however the comment sections underneath these posts were significantly lacking in discussion compared to more political profiles. The subject of reality tv that belongs on Twitter appears to run at a very fast-pace, which suits the style of advertising and episodes that are produced for reality tv shows. As audiences of reality tv shows might prefer to quickly hear updates about meaningless gossip and drama, they will also likely turn to Twitter to find a snapshot of their favourite show. My specific experience with Twitter has involved tailoring my content specifically to my chosen topic which has eased the process of searching for reality tv related posts. In order to find more relevant topics and content I followed Twitter’s recommended process of selecting a variety of genres and topics to “follow”. These topics include; “celebrities”, “digital creators”. “Keeping Up With the Kardashians”, “TV news”, “beauty influencers” and “entertainment”. This tailoring system perfectly suits the user-generated system of social media, allowing users to filter through and eliminate hundreds of surrounding topics that hold no personal interest or connection to the user. From this perspective I found Twitter a much more efficient way of searching for updates surrounding topics that interested me and that would be of value for my topic, unlike platforms such as TikTok, where scrolling through a home feed can become overwhelming and seemingly irrelevant to my specific context. Twitter is an extremely powerful platform for its ability to filter specific interest and attach them to each user, which allows them to take advantage of their experience whilst using the app.

The posts that I investigated and shared include a retweet of Beauty and the Geek Australia's post; "Lachlan and Kiera have been crowned the winners of Beauty and the Geek 2021 in an emotional Grand Finale", Love Island's post; "It's FINAL TIME. Eyes on @itv2 or @itvhub now to see our Islanders' last moments in the villa #LoveIsland", The Bachelor's post; "Did someone say engaged? Watch the #BachelorInParadise Season Finale TONIGHT at 8/7c to see who leaves together as a couple!", and Molly-Mae's post; "My mum used to pick up this magazine for me when I was younger as a treat. This month I'm on the cover... I wonder if these things will ever feel real?".