Transcript Document 7337897

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”
Main objective: How television for children and youth is influenced by the
ongoing technological media convergence
How do producers use the
different media (television,
internet, mobile phone)?
How do cross-media
aesthetics develop?
How do young people respond
to the interactive possibilities
they are offered?
Database
Web site
Television
Production
Television and new media
Interactivity
New media
User interface - new modi –
new forms of expressions
Media convergence
Audience / users
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 Television Production
Company (Fabelaktiv as)
An Internet Company
(Apropos Internet as)
An Academic Institution
(Hedmark University College)
Production
•
Target group: 9- 14 years old children
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
•
•
•
•
•
Media Use: Television, Internet,
Mobile Phone
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)
Interactivity Framework
Bordewijk & van Kaam, 1986, Jens F. Jensen 1998, 2001
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)
Information produced
by a central provider
Distribution
controlled by a
central provider
Distribution
controlled by the
consumer
Information produced
by the consumer
Transmissional interactivity
Registrational 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.
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
Conversational 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.
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.
Interactivity in Puggandplay
Bordewijk & van Kaam, 1986, Jens F. Jensen 1998, 2001
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)
Information produced
by a central provider
Information produced
by the consumer
Distribution
controlled by a
central provider
Transmissional interactivity
Registrational interactivity
TV broadcasts 3 times a week
(Monday – Wednesday 3.05 -4.00
pm.)
The webbased “homework help”
database (questions and answers),
response to competitions (email,
SMS/MMS), voting
Distribution
controlled by the
consumer
Consultational interactivity
Conversational interactivity
The web site, including link collection,
Web-TV and internet games
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
[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.
– 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
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
http://tide.hil.no
[email protected]