Download - EuroITV 2005, Ålborg 1. april 2005
Children’s and youth television and the convergence of media:A look at the interactive cross-media case “puggandplay”
EuroITV 2005, Ålborg 1. april 2005
Brit Svoen, Ph.D Student, Lillehammer University College, Norway
Introduction• Background for the project
– Trends• Digital and converging technological development• New and interactive services, user patterns and ways of social interactions
– (Traditional) television is challenged by its “digital environment”• The interest for television decreases by viewers also having access to internet
and broadband – e.g. Internet more popular than television among young adults in USA
– Interactive Digital Television will be an option for most households in less than five years
• Digital terristerial broadcast network will be completed in Norway in 2009
): Television is in a kind of intermediate phase where it is important to gain experiences
My Ph.D project is part of the research project Television in a digital environment (TiDE) at Lillehammer University College, which aim is to analyse the consequences of digitalisation, convergence and new media for television.
The PhD project ”at a glance”
How do young people respond to the interactive possibilities they are offered?
How do cross-media aesthetics develop?
How do producers use the different media (television, internet, mobile phone)?
Audience / usersTelevision and new mediaProduction
Television
Web siteDatabase
Main objective: How television for children and youth is influenced by the ongoing technological media convergence
Media convergence
Interactivity
New media
User interface - new modi – new forms of expressions
The project’s target group: Children and youth
• They are enthusiastic and among the firsts to use new technology,
• they are the social group using most media, often combining them,
• they are exploring and
• they utilize the interactive possibilities in media according both to services and social relationships
): Producers often address this people when they experiment with new programme concepts, ways of communications and aesthetics
Case study: “Puggandplay”
• A Cross-media learning resource– three weekly TV broadcasts at NRK1 (Norway's public broadcaster and major broadcasting institution)
– a web site (http://www.puggandplay.com) consisting of • an answer database with more than 15.000 questions and answers (“homework help”),
• a link collection (2400 secured links to learning resources),
• pedagogical games and
• streamed versions of earlier TV broadcasts.
– SMS and email
• The production is a cooperation between an independent television production company (Fabelaktiv as), an academic institution (Hedmark University College) and a private Internet company (Apropos Internett as)
Target group: 9- 14 years old childrenMedia Use: Television, Internet, Mobile Phone
Production
A Television Production
Company (Fabelaktiv as)
An Academic Institution (Hedmark University College)
An Internet Company (Apropos Internet as)
Interactivity FrameworkBordewijk & van Kaam, 1986, Jens F. Jensen 1998, 2001
Transmissional interactivity
A measure of a media’s potential ability to let the user choose from a continuous stream of information in a one way media system without a return channel and therefore without a possibility for making requests.
Registrational interactivity
A measure of a media’s potential ability to registrer information from and thereby also adapt and or respond to a given user’s needs and actions, whether they be the user’s explicit choice of communication method or the system’s built-in ability to automatically “sense” and adapt.
Consultational interactivity
A measure of a media’s potential ability to let the user choose by request, from an existing selection of preproduced information in a two way media system with a return channel.
Conversational interactivity
A measure of a media’s potential ability to let the user produce and input his/her own information in a two way media system, to be stored or in real time.
Information produced by a central provider
Information produced by the consumer
Distribution controlled by a central provider
Distribution controlled by the
consumer
Interactivity may be defined as a measure of a media’s potential ability to let the user exert an influence on the content and/or form of the mediated communication.
(Jensen 1998:201)
Interactivity may be defined as a measure of a media’s potential ability to let the user exert an influence on the content and/or form of the mediated communication.
(Jensen 1998:201)
Interactivity in Puggandplay Bordewijk & van Kaam, 1986, Jens F. Jensen 1998, 2001
Information produced by a central provider
Information produced by the consumer
Distribution controlled by a central provider
Distribution controlled by the
consumer
Transmissional interactivity
TV broadcasts 3 times a week (Monday – Wednesday 3.05 -4.00 pm.)
Registrational interactivity
The webbased “homework help” database (questions and answers), response to competitions (email, SMS/MMS), voting
Consultational interactivity
The web site, including link collection, Web-TV and internet games
Conversational interactivity
Email and SMS/MMS communication with the production team and the subject expertices
[Early findings:Q1] Do the new media open up for a broader participation in the programme production?
• No representatives from the target group in the production team, but most of the programme topics are based on suggestions from the audience (users) through conversational interactivity
• Close collaboration and “responsibility sharing” between three production partners
• Teachers and students involved in answering the questions asked on the website, making it possible to have an response rate close to 90%
): The case– by means of various interactive possibilities, cross media use and organisational model - seems to have a broader participation than most traditional concepts.
[Early findings:Q2] For what purposes are the different media used?
– The various media seem to have explicit functions:• TV is the direct and ”live” contact with the audiences, trying
to motivate and make them curious. ): Guide the users to the website
• The website is the arena for further explorations, and the main medium for interactivity (consultational)
• The mobile phone is mainly used for competions – least used medium
– Users primarily do not respond to the TV producer, but mainly uses the website
– The internet activity shows a significant increase during broadcast time, indicating that the users have access to Internet while watching television
– For non-broadcast days, the internet activity is typically lower and more evenly spread - even if the website is increasingly used as a stand-alone learning resource
[Early findings:Q3] How, and to what degree, will the audience become activated because of the increased possibilities for interactivity?
Table: Example on Puggandplay website activity on a day with and without TV broadcast.
Tendencies
• Further studies necessary, but it may seem that– According to the case-study, use of various media cross- media use can be
used and combined in building a service in a way that seems to increase the total use of it, including use of the various interactive possibilities and the total use of the service
– An organisational structure involving different kind of institutions may enhance the quality of the service and the user participation