Live Tweets as Social Commentary?

Abstract

As Shonda Rhimes is credited with transforming contemporary network television production and consumption practices -- and having the most avid Twitter followers -- her hit program is an ideal focus for an audience study. Chapter Eight considers fictional television's ability to engage in public pedagogy by looking at the ways in which viewers support or undermine Rhimes's social commentary. Attending to tweets focused on the main character, the female anti-hero Annalise Keating (Viola Davis), reveals the warring sentiments (and different ideological camps) that still exist surrounding identity politics involving women of color, same-sex relationships, and interracial relationships.