Media Criticism and Morality Policing on Twitter: Fan Responses to 'How to Get Away with Murder'

In an alarmist age when tirades about society's eroding ethics are

abundant, the media is often a scapegoat for those who fear that cultural values

are disintegrating. For decades, from reality television's debauchery to celebrity

programming's narcissism to fictional drama's excessive violence, television has

been blamed for contributing to society's so-called moral decline. Recently, concern

has expanded from content to include twenty-first century television viewing

practices. Studies argue that binge watching television leads to antisocial dispositions,

depression, and immorality. Likewise, social media is credited for

creating a generation of narcissists and prompting increased levels of depression,

jealousy, and apathy. Television viewing today often entails double screening - wherein

viewers are not only engaging with the content on television but are also

commenting on that content through social media. Forty-three percent of tablet

and smart phone owners report using their devices while watching television every

day and 95 percent of the conversation occurring on social media concerning television

is taking place on Twitter, making it an ideal site to examine what viewers

are doing with their double screens. Reading dual-media use data alongside

alarmist rhetoric about the negative impact technology has on cultural ethics, one

might conclude that this tag team of Twitter and television is bound to destroy

humanity as we know it. Or not. Unsurprisingly, online television fandom studies

indicate that audience engagernent---even with programs packed full of scandalous

storylines-is much more complicated than fear-mongering irnplies.