Webisodes for kids: A format that allows manipulation of contents?

Webisodes are becoming increasingly popular, almost rising exponentially with the usage of mobile phones to view short movies. Although webisodes have been made available on the net over the past few years, the demand for more shows have soared lately given the rise in mobile phones that enables viewing of movies.

Nowadays, children as young as pre-school goers are equipped with mobile phones and many of them possess high-end mobile phones. Given the shift in cultural paradigm, webisode producers seemed to have pushed the extra mile to cater for this relatively new target audience with anticipation that webisodes would be the main source of entertainment for children, replacing comics.

In terms of the contents of webisodes, producers have the responsibility to ensure that that they do not bring harm to children. It has to be acknowledged that children are not wise enough to make informed decision and it is very easy for them to get carried away (Donnelly 2008). Therefore, contents showing excessive stunts may compel the child to attempt the same. When shown in television, such acts may be omitted from a scene if it is targeted at children(Tapscott 1998). Even if it shown, there is often a warning sign stating that it is only meant for professionals. However, webisodes are not subject to such censorship as they do not have any official guidelines to abide by.

Below are some of the scenes from a violent webisode known as Happy Tree Friends.

Source: Happy Tree Friends

Source: Happy Tree Friends

In terms of format, webisodes are often shown through mediums such as the web or mobile devices. This brings about the issue of easy accessibility. For television viewing, shows not suitable for children would be aired at late hours and this minimizes the chances of them coming across such shows(Unnikrishnan & Bajpai 1996). However, with webisodes, they could view it any time of the day. The length of a webisode is usually 5 minutes as it caters to children (Corbert 2007). The attention span of children is relatively short compared to teens and the best way to effectively communicate with them is by making the show as short as possible. To increase its effectiveness, the affordance of the webisode could be capitalized upon by using an engaging combination of audio and visual elements (Walsh 2006).

With the right format, webisodes can effectively reach children. However, children could also be easily influenced by harmful contents that have been irresponsibly included by producers with the intent of creating an excitement among children.

Reference List

Corbert, C. 2007, “Webisodes for Kids”, The Media Report, ABC Radio National, viewed transcript on 12 November 2009

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2007/2124198.htm

Donnelly, K. 2008, “Youth Participation and Media Literacy on The-N.com”, Studies in Media and Information Literacy Education, Vol. 8, No. 1.

Tapscott, D. 1998, Growing up digital: The rise of the net generation, McGraw Hill, New York, pp.336-338.

Unnikrishnan, N. & Bajpai, S. 1996, The impact of television advertising on children, Sage Publication, Thousand Oaks, CA.

Walsh. M. 2006, “‘Textual shift’: Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts”, Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, Vol. 29, No. 1, p.24-37