Co-viewing: Value and Trends

Overview

Co-viewing occurs when different members of a household view the same television show or media production at the same time. This could mean that children are watching a show with their parents or that roommates are watching a movie together. The critical element is that there are multiple individuals watching the same media and that this co-viewing produces interesting communicative opportunities. These opportunities include the ability to analyze audience reactions, deliberations that occur while viewing, and the different ways that two individuals receive and respond to identical information at the same time. Co-viewing is used by the Neilson Company to analyze audience dynamics and by multimedia companies such as Netflix to decide which programs to sponsor and produce.

For as long as televisions have existed, co-viewing has occurred. This was particularly common when a family had only one television or when a whole community had access to only a few televisions. Movies memorialize co-viewing when they show crowds gathering around a television store and watching news updates. Co-viewing occurs on other platforms as well. Co-viewing can occur when two individuals watch a film on a phone, laptop, tablet or other electronic device. This innovation in co-viewing opens up additional questions about how we consume and share information. For example, scholars ask whether it might be different to invite someone into your home to watch a YouTube video on a television rather than co-watch it on a smartphone in a public space. Communication scholar Marshall McLuhan argued that the “medium is the message,” meaning that the form of technology that people use to view media has an effect on how messages are received. McLuhan advanced his argument in 1964, well before many media platforms had been developed. Yet, the theory has stayed popular and has been utilized by studies of many different technologies and the effects of those technologies on contemporary culture. For example, Sjöblom, Törhönen, Hamari and Macey (2017) have examined the phenomenon of video game spectatorship. In their study of 1,097 spectators of video games, these researchers asked how co-viewing the playing of a video game affected learning about the game, as well as how it developed new social structures and tensions among the viewers. This study, and video game spectatorship, is interesting to communication researchers because it demonstrates the ways that co-viewing can be circular. Gamers know that their actions are being recorded and streamed, and they then react to that knowledge. Similarly, the co-viewers are able to engage in multiple feedback platforms, and through their comments, responses, and viewership numbers, are able to affect the ways that gamers engage in their gameplay.

Co-viewing is common in families. Some parents require that they are always present when their child is viewing any type of media, or when the child is watching media of a particular rating. For example, a child might be free to watch any movie rated G on their own, but must participate in co-viewing for PG-13 movies. Media platforms support these restrictions through parental controls that block viewing, require passwords, or give a rating for a program before it begins. This regulation of children’s viewing and utilization of co-viewing is supported by studies such as Rasmussen et al. (2016), which tracked the ways that children from 6 to 13 years old were affected by viewing television programs. These children were asked to watch one program with their parent present in a co-viewing exercise and to watch one alone. The researchers found that when the children were participating in co-viewing they had increased psychophysical arousal as evident by increased skin temperatures and the expression of emotions of joy, anger, or excitement. They also had increased cognitive resource allocation, meaning that they were positively affected by the co-viewing experience.

In other studies of parental co-viewing, researchers have discussed the effect of co-viewing on the child’s likelihood to take up smoking or drinking. For example, de Leeuw, Blom and Engels (2014) asked 99 adolescents to watch the movie Titanic either with a friend or with a parent. This means that in both groups, participants were co-viewing, but each group had very different power dynamics. After viewing the movie, the participants were asked to complete a survey about their likelihood to drink or smoke. The researchers found that few parents discussed smoking and drinking in the movie that they had just seen with their children and encouraged parents to focus more on these types of preventative conversations after viewing characters that engaged in behaviors that they wish their children to avoid. The researchers warned that based on their study, it is not enough for parents to co-view a program with their child, they must also prompt and engage in these types of discussions.

Strouse, Troseth, O’Doherty and Saylor (2018) demonstrated one way that this type of co-viewing and conversation could function for toddlers. They examined the ways that 30-month-old children (those that are two and a half) view live video feeds supported by platforms such as Skype and FaceTime. This co-viewing is often used by parents to reach children while far away, or for children to engage with extended family members. The researchers wondered if there was a difference in the child’s response to a live video feed or one that had been recorded in advance. They found that during the live video feed viewing, children had more active responses because they were modeling their parent’s interactions. They concluded that when using live video feed in a co-viewing setting it is helpful if parents model the correct responses and behaviors.

Further Insights

Co-viewing changes as media platforms adapt to the changing demands of viewers. Traditionally, television stations would organize a schedule of television shows, and viewers could either watch at that precise time or hope that the show would be rerun in the future. This was known as “appointment broadcast television.” Contemporary media companies, such as Amazon, Netflix, and Hulu allow viewers to call up programs whenever they like, sometimes indefinitely and sometimes for a long but finite period of time. This availability of programing, including the ability to re-watch a program, pause, and switch from program to program have changed viewership. Pittman and Terferteiller (2015) have studied the changes in this availability to determine whether there was an effect on viewers’ choice to view a program individually or engage in co-viewing. In this study, they advanced the theory of co-viewing further by coining the term “co-connected viewing,” meaning that viewers are watching the same program at the same time, but not necessarily in the same space. Instead, viewers might be connected via social media, such as Twitter—on which the study focuses. The researchers found that viewers are interested in co-viewing and co-connected viewing and do it frequently while watching programs available on demand. However, the availability of many different episodes at once complicates the study and understanding of co-viewing. For some groups and shows it is popular to binge watch a show in a short period of time. However, for other shows it is common for viewers to begin watching together and then separate into smaller groups or individual viewing for later episodes.

Beginning in the 2020s, during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, major streaming services began adding a co-viewing feature called "GroupWatch." Both Amazon and Disney+, for instance, added a feature with this name. Disney+'s GroupWatch allows up to seven subscribers to watch its content at the same time while sharing their reactions using emojis. Netflix was the first streaming giant to incorporate a co-viewing service with its Netflix Party, which worked on a web browser, so viewers also tuned into Zoom and Facetime and manually synced the show with each other over video chat. Also during the pandemic, schools had to transition from traditional classroom learning to online learning. Camilleri and Camilleri (2022) found that co-viewing with interaction that provides practical implications for the social context of learning from live video streaming benefits students, especially those in elementary school.

Businesses are very interested in the effect of co-viewing. Businesses want customers to be interested in, talking about, and eventually buying their product. To encourage these conversations, many businesses will pay for product placement and promotion during a show. This might mean that a cooking show features only products made by a specific company, which is guaranteed that a certain amount of time in each episode will be spent showing the company logo. Or it could be that the popular child in a movie always wears a specific brand of sneakers and talks with classmates about how amazing that brand is. The 1998 movie The Truman Show parodied this product placement, showing how every action, decision, and item used by the main character was actually product placement designed to drive up sales and affect public opinion on specific topics. Researchers have asked how co-viewing affects product placement and the reception of those placements. In a study of viewer recall, Coker and Altobello (2018) asked how well viewers remember the products that have been advertised in a show. They found that co-viewers are more likely to recall the placed products than solo viewers.

Similarly, marketers worry about the ways that viewers of webpages and web-based media respond to placed advertisements. Researchers have studied the ways that advertisers have worked to produce more word of mouth support for their products. Word of mouth support is particularly valuable for business as consumers encounter and learn about a new product or service from a trusted and known source, often one that they know and like. This makes the messages about a good or service much stronger than those received through a traditional advertisement. Researchers such as Zhou, Su, Zhou and Zhang (2016) have examined the ways that online friendships have developed in China and how these online groups can be used to enhance consumer community behavior. Studies such as this advance co-viewing theory beyond watching television in a group.

Issues

Co-viewing takes on many different forms, each requiring its own analysis. The way that a group views a program together is affected not only by the program but also by social dynamics that rule other types of group activities. For example, if children are taught to never speak until spoken to, they most likely will not speak while co-viewing. A research project would, however, be remiss to suggest that co-viewing was the cause for the child’s silence during a program because the underlying reason might be a much deeper cultural tradition. The form of media which is viewed is also very important to include in a study. For example, Brazilian telenovelas are a special type of serialized television drama. Pires de Sá and Roig (2016) have argued that the co-viewing of telenovelas is a specific type of activity, which must be analyzed as a special cultural product. By focusing on the ways that Facebook groups have emerged to discuss telenovelas, these researchers are pushing scholars to examine the many different ways that co-viewing occurs and how co-viewing is transitioning to co-connected viewing.

Studies of co-viewing are interested in the ways that it increases the joy of watching a program, as well as the ways that it regulates and changes social behavior. The research team of Banjo et al. (2017) examined the ways that co-viewing affected viewers’ reactions to racial humor. Participants in this study were split into two groups, those who would watch a program only with members of their same race (racial in-group) and participants who would watch the same program with co-viewers of many races (racial out-group). The researchers then played a set of programs that utilized racial slurs in comedies and recorded the ways that viewers responded. They found significant differences in response and argued that those differences were dependent on the other members of the viewing group. This research indicates that while the television programing or movie may prompt critical discussions and reactions, those reactions are mediated by the other members of the viewing group.

For political officials, this effect of changed behavior is very important. It means that Public Service Announcements will be filtered through the assumptions and corrections of individuals who are watching an advertisement together. During an election, it means that campaign materials, political debates, and the emergence of news and gossip will often be discussed among co-viewers. These co-viewers may discuss the topic in person or online. Lee and Choi (2018) examined the ways that co-viewing affected the 2017 South Korean election. They found that when citizens co-viewed they experienced both increased fear in response to candidate statements and increased enthusiasm for messages and political slogans.

Researchers and media professionals know that co-viewing affects the ways that messages are received and information is processed. They therefore work to anticipate and assess the many different ways that media is consumed. For some, that means advancing the theory to include video games, online platforms, and co-connected viewing. For others it means learning more about the physiology and psychology of co-viewing. All of these studies advance our knowledge of how information is consumed and processed, as well as how it affects our future behavior as both viewers and consumers.

Bibliography

Banjo, O. O., Wang, Z., Appiah, O., Brown, C., Walther-Martin, W., Tchernev, J., … Irwin, M. (2017). Experiencing racial humor with outgroups: A psychophysiological examination of co-viewing effects. Media Psychology, 20(4), 607–631. Retrieved December 23, 2018 from EBSCO Online Database Academic Source Ultimate. search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=asn&AN=126454736&site=ehost-live

Caixia, L., Wang, L., Zhongling, P., & Yang, L. (2023, June 6). Interaction matters: Co-viewing facilitates learning from live video streaming for elementary students. Education and Information Technologies, 29, pp. 2387–2411, doi.org/10.1007/s10639-023-11920-4

Camilleri, M.A. & Camilleri, A.C. (2022, Feb.) Remote learning via video conferencing technologies: Implications for research and practice. Technology in Society, 68, doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2022.101881

Coker, K. K., & Altobello, S. A. (2018). Product placements in social settings: The impact of co-viewing on the recall of placed brands. Journal of Business Research, 87, 128–136. Retrieved December 23, 2018 from EBSCO Online Database Academic Source Ultimate. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bsu&AN=129373573&site=ehost-live

de Leeuw, R. N., Blom, H., & Engels, R. C. (2014). Parental co‐viewing and susceptibility for smoking and drinking in adolescents: An experimental pilot study. The American Journal on Addictions, 23(4), 349–356. Retrieved December 23, 2018 from EBSCO Online Database Academic Source Ultimate. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=asn&AN=96730441&site=ehost-live

Lee, J., & Choi, Y. (2018). Expanding affective intelligence theory through social viewing: Focusing on the South Korea’s 2017 presidential election. Computers in Human Behavior, 83, 119–128. Retrieved January 1, 2019 from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=128394095&site=ehost-live

Pires de Sá, F., & Roig, A. (2016). Challenging prime time television: Co-viewing practices in the Brazilian telenovela. Convergence, 22(4), 392–407.

Pittman, M., & Tefertiller, A. C. (2015). With or without you: Connected viewing and co-viewing Twitter activity for traditional appointment and asynchronous broadcast television models. First Monday, 20(7).

Sjöblom, M., Törhönen, M., Hamari, J., & Macey, J. (2017). Content structure is king: An empirical study on gratifications, game genres and content type on Twitch. Computers in Human Behavior, 73(C), 161–171. Retrieved January 1, 2019 from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=123258477&site=ehost-live

Strouse, G. A., Troseth, G. L., O’Doherty, K. D., & Saylor, M. M. (2018). Co-viewing supports toddlers’ word learning from contingent and noncontingent video. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 166, 310–326. Retrieved January 1, 2019 from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=127984270&site=ehost-live

Yao, R. (2020, October 7). The rise of virtual co-viewing.IPG Media Lab, https://medium.com/ipg-media-lab/the-rise-of-virtual-co-viewing-1572375f162d

Zhou, Z., Su, C., Zhou, N., & Zhang, N. (2016). Becoming friends in online brand communities: Evidence from China. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 21(1), 69–86.