TV ratings vs. social media engagement: Big social data analytics of the Scandinavian TV talk show Skavlan

This paper explores the relationship between TV viewership ratings for Scandinavian's most popular talk show, Skavlan and public opinions expressed on its Facebook page. The research aim is to examine whether the activity on social media affects the number of viewers per episode of Skavlan, how the viewers are affected by discussions on the Talk Show, and whether this creates debate on social media afterwards. By analyzing TV viewer ratings of Skavlan talk show, Facebook activity and text classification of Facebook posts and comments with respect to type of emotions and brand sentiment, this paper identifes patterns in the users' real-world and digital world behaviour.