A thought on a remarkable development here happening with the second screen hyping during these election times here in the Netherlands.
All major TV channels discovered the second screen (like this and this) as a mean to interact with viewers of the political debate. It feels really like a hype and it is also interesting to see and research the use of it and the longlasting effects. There are already some comedy shows making fun of the whole phenonemon.
I think that there is an interesting thing happening though, hype or not. It could be very well possible that the second screen is influencing the voting. Or at least the polls. We see that the winner of the debates is growing in the polls directly and with big numbers (Diederik Samson of the PvdA). I have at the same time the feeling that people who are defining who is winning the debates are influenced for a (important) part by the sentiment on the second screen.
This feels very much like the effects Kevin Slavin was describing in his talk on the second ‘screen’ experience last year. Laughter from nowhere, we are using the second screen as guidance for our own opinionating. I really hope someone will research this phenomenon and find out how this voting from nowhere works.
target is new 