Social Media Analysis
The beat we decided to research on Twitter was theatre life with the COVID-19 pandemic. Here we followed a couple sites, such as Playbill, Broadway.com and Broadway World. Each site had different things they were monitoring such as virtual showings or productions. Playbill had a post of an article today (4/7/2021) about Williamstown Theatre’s virtual gala that is featuring famous people like Phillipa Soo, Renee Fleming, and Michael R. Jackson. This gala has a portion of their proceeds that the Williamstown Theatre Festival makes will go to the industries set designers, light designers, costume designers, and stage managers. What I find to be compelling about these posts is that it is promoting people to tune into these festivals, productions, etc., to keep the industry alive. With promising to use some of the proceeds to go to these workers of this industry, more people will want to donate and tune in to keep these people working. The thing that would make this better is if they could get to a greater audience. As of right now this post only has five likes, which could mean that it is not getting to enough people. Although they are very good at keeping the twitter page updated, here they are sharing information every day with more than 83,000 tweets. This site follows a lot of famous directors, producers, composers, actors, musicians, choreographers, etc. Playbill is followed by a lot of different people, like famous people (examples above), “regular” people, smaller pages that are trying to get out this information (who share these articles to a more targeted audience). Researching this site was beneficial because it allows me to see more of their website, having their articles consolidated makes it quick to read and compels me to want to read more.
When monitoring our beat about theater during a pandemic and how it has affected the arts by looking up #theater, #covid, #pandemic, and #broadway. We were able to find some but not a lot of articles and journalist talking about how the pandemic has affected the arts. We noticed that newspapers such as the Milwaukee Business Journal, The New York Times, and freelance journalist all have taken to social media to speak out about the arts amidst the pandemic.
From research it did not look like many focused on the topic or how it affected the people who perform but more so asking when will theater return. It could be improved on by talking more about how the pandemic has affected the arts/performers or changed putting on shows and acting in general. The New York Times article went into detail about how Broadway just re-opened April 3rd for approximately 36 minutes. The reporter for The New York Times Michael Paulson had the most articles written from actors pushing unions to allow them to work, shows that are fighting to stay on stage, and getting vaccinations for performers. They do well by making sure that they post consistently, and they keep the content very on –brand and positive, much like the theatre! Their website is filled with information regarding new shows, show reunions, virtual theatre, industry tips, jobs postings, information for students, insider interviews, and updating the theatre world on all thing’s tony awards. The overall tone of most of the articles they write, and share are of a positive and uplifting nature. Broadway World seems to inform, empower, and entertain the theatrical community. They make professionals aware of opportunities and update fans on the latest happenings. It is important to point out that Broadway World is not is not a gossip site and does not seem to be profiting from the destruction of others. This helps build their brand as a positive, up-beat source for the theatre. They also share tweets about charities, anti-hate related events and organizations as well. This helps brand them as inclusive and caring. The majority of their followers are theatre artists, both established and beginning, as well as patrons and fans of the theatre. They tend to follow only more prominent and influential members of the theatrical community: well-known actors, directors, playwrights etc. The accounts that they follow are typically verified on twitter. This analysis has been helpful because it allows me to see the style of a very prominent source for theatre related news. It also helped me compare the story that our group wrote on our theatre department making theatre during a pandemic here at Parkside to the kinds of coverage that Broadway World had on theatre making amidst a pandemic.
