Can social sharing save brodcast media?

I caught up with Stephen Clark, nightly news anchor for WXYZ Channel 7 Action News in Detroit. Stephen has tapped into twitter during his newscasts, creating a two-way communication street he actually participates in while on the air. A powerful, consistent and active backchannel converses with him and with each other about the stories on air and has added a real-time feedback element for the reporters.

It’s awesome to see this intersection between broadcast media and social media. Just about all broadcast content is available online on-demand, so viewership during the original broadcast time slot is dying. Given the success WXYZ has seen, it begs the question, can social sharing save broadcast media? Some food for thought…

Instead of just location-based checkin services like Foursquare and Gowalla, what if there were a checkin platform for activities? While watching primetime programming or nightly news, those watching could check in and know who else was watching at the time of broadcast.

Once checked in, a real-time microblogging service like Twitter could serve as the conversation mechanism among viewers, and in live broadcasts, those on the screen. With a hashtag or automated list creator tool based on active checkins, identifying those to talk with is easy.

Many primetime shows have dedicated followings. People that consistently and actively follow those shows could use social networks like Facebook to connect with others sharing the interest. Creating groups, fan pages or events around the broadcasts could help connect the super passionate fans with each other. After all, aren’t social networks meant for us to more easily connect with like-minded people? Creators of programming could easily identify influential stakeholders in their media, and if they were smart, could tap into the active community.

We all know broadcast media still survives because of advertising revenue. What if through TiVo or digital cable, viewers could rate ads, like you can with music on Pandora Radio. Instant audience poll, from passionate viewers, offering information the stations could offer media buyers so advertisers could make better decisions about where to spend money and whether their messages resonated with the audiences they’re targeting. It’s so easy to connect TVs with the internet now, there is no reason viewers can’t help improve advertising.

There’s a significant argument to be made that “social media” isn’t the right term for the real-time shareable web, but maybe where “social” intersects with traditional “media”, the term can make sense. With active audience participation and sharing integrated in the viewing experience, maybe broadcast can be a social media.

Thoughts?