Ellen's Oscar Celeb Selfie A Landmark Media Moment

Ellen DeGeneres' celeb-studded selfie from the most-watched Oscars telecast in a decade was a landmark social media moment at a time online conversation is boosting television viewership and vice versa. It's also a murky example of what is or isn't product placement in a hyper-marketed world. Would the world's most retweeted photo have been shot by an iPhone if Samsung hadn't been a commercial sponsor of the Academy Awards?

The Oscars are generally the most-watched TV event of the year after the Super Bowl. The ratings provide further evidence of how big event programming is a growth engine for broadcast networks, in large part because of fans watching the event and conversing with friends on tablets and smartphones.

Twitter said that some 14.7 million tweets mentioning the Oscars or prominent actors and films were sent out during the telecast, and Facebook said there were 25.4 million interactions about the show. Social media was clearly a driving force and is why live events on networks "have become basically the currency," co-producer Neil Meron said. "What it's all about right now is creating a conversation, and social media allows for the conversation as it's happening," he said.