Case study exam question

"Audiences are no longer just consumers of texts, but producers too" - To what extent is this true of the media products in your case study?
Remember to reference your case study research throughout, and provide a number of specific examples across all 3 platforms for each of your texts.

The area I have studied is children’s programming; the three products I have chosen are: SpongeBob Square pants, Ben10 and Hannah Montana. All of these products operate on the three platforms that are: print, broadcast and e-media. In this essay i will be exploring how the audience of my case study products participate and contribute in the media products making.

Mini-question, Ben10: How do the audiences of Ben 10 magazine participate in new characters that are put on the show?

After the movie Ben10- Ultimate alien the Ben10 magazine launched a competition were participants had to design their own “Ultimate Alien”. The best entries were then uploaded to Ben10 website and had the details of the author next to it. This shows that the consumers of Ben10 products (the movie and magazine, or just the magazine) get to create new monsters for the show that are featured on the e-media platform of the Ben10 products. This is also a key example of how the 3 platforms print (the magazine), broadcast (the movie), and e-media (the website) that Ben10 is on are linked, how they exist on each of these of these platforms, and how they use each to make consumers use the other platforms; for example consumers of the magazine that have seen the competition and want to enter may want to watch the movie and then go on the website to see other peoples entries.

The official Ben10 website allows users to create their own Ben10 game were they can chose their own custom layout, background, objective, “bad guy”, obstacles and much more. They then can save their custom made unique game and share it with friends, that friend can then try and complete their friend’s custom game.  The user can also save their version of their game and edit it later. When the user is happy with their game and all aspects of the game they test their game to prove it can be completed, then they can go on to send it to cartoon network via the internet for free, and if the game is approved it is published in the gallery so anyone that has access to the internet can go any play on it. This has been extremely success with over 120,000 unique games accepted and in the gallery and those games have collectively been played over 57 million times. Once the game has been played they can be rated and have a difficulty level; they are also put in categories, such as: water hazard games, newly uploaded, most popular, etc.

A way users can use e-media is by making Ben10 groups and fan pages on social networking sites and on the internet.

Mini-question, Hannah Montana: How does the Hannah Montana website let the user create different outfits for Hannah Montana?

On the Hannah Montana website user can create different outfits for Hannah Montana characters using a variety of tops, jeans, shoes etc that they can customise in several different colours. Then the user can use their custom “Hannah Montana” or whichever character they had chosen and customised in different games on the website.

Another way users can use e-media is by making Hannah Montana groups and fan pages on social networking sites and on the internet.

Hannah Montana fans also use e-media to create “wiki’s” on the show. These are when they make pages online or as part of a Hannah Montana wiki site where they put information on different characters, locations used and different episodes. These often have links attached to them have tell users about the Hannah Montana products on all the platforms (print, broadcast and e-media)

The print platform for Hannah Montana is their magazine, and one example of how they made their users into creates of media texts is, they had a competition were people had to create their own custom “Hannah’s” and send them. It also advertised the Hannah Montana website as people that wanted to enter the competition and weren’t good at drawing could go on the Hannah Montana website and print of stencils of Hannah Montana and colour them in, then  send them in. The winner had their picture feature in the magazine in a later week.

Mini-question, SpongeBob: How does SpongeBob use e-media to create different comic strip situations?

An unofficial SpongeBob website allows users to create a mini comic by allowing them to make a comic strip; they can use a variety of different characters and backgrounds and can edit the speech bubbles that come from the characters on the comic strip to create different situations. This is a simple way to make users creates of SpongeBob texts and also in a way advertising for the SpongeBob magazine as user that like making SpongeBob comic strips will probably like comics as a whole and therefore may want to buy a the SpongeBob.

Another way users can use e-media is by making SpongeBob groups and fan pages on social networking sites and on the internet.

SpongeBob e-media audience have also created many games which have been posted on unofficial SpongeBob websites. This is an example of user generated contents as users of SpongeBob texts have created games were different characters from the SpongeBob show are featured and have to do things that are often typical of that SpongeBob character.

One of the unofficial websites has a game called “SpongeBob square pants dress up game for girls”. This not only allows users to creates different outfits for SpongeBob but also attracts and secondary audience of the show that the show may be having difficulty trying to attract (girls).

Another way fans of SpongeBob square pants have became creators of SpongeBob things is by making SpongeBob themes. On the internet people have uploaded thousands of themes for social networking home pages, mobile phone theme and even theme for your personal computer (home page, menu, screensaver).