Maya Götz

Strategies of directing attention in children's television market

Paper presented at the 52^nd Annual ICA Conference

July 15^th-19^th 2002
Seoul, South Korea

IZI research project "Children's and Young People's Television between Public Discussion, the Market and Everyday Life". The idea for this project germinated at the ICA conference 2001 in Washington. Karin Böhme-Dürr spoke about her interest in the links between public attention and the TV market. One of her theses, in simple terms, is that public attention and market success frequently concur, as in the case of the "Big Brother" format. I vehemently countered that the situation is "somehow" quite different on the children's and young people's market. The ensuing debate resulted in the research project "Children's and Young People's Television between Public Discussion, the Market and Everyday Life". A number of colleagues participated in this project, to whom I would like to extend my thanks once again.¹ The core of the study is to establish the links between press coverage and market data; interviews with the press office heads of the TV channels; and partial studies on individual formats.

In the following paper I intend to consider first some aspects of the initial situation by showing the correlation between market success and public attention, according to press releases and parents' opinion. In the second part I will be talking about the strategies of the bridgeheads of attention control: the press offices of broadcasting stations. Exemplary programmes will be considered to clarify the various phenomena.

In a content analysis of the press coverage, we examined the articles of the past five years on the subject of "Children and Television" (N= 1150 articles²). One aspect of the evaluation: Which children's programmes have been written about in the past five years?

You will probably not know all the titles of these programmes: they are, on the one hand, certain formats with a "potential for scandal", such as "Teletubbies" or "Pokémon" and, on the other, quality programmes of public service broadcasting,

such as the children’s news programme "logo" and "Die Sendung mit der Maus" (The Programme with the Mouse). Apart from "Pokémon" they are all public service broadcasting programmes. Hence thesis no. 1: regarding the children's TV market in Germany the press potentially writes more about public service broadcasting programmes than about private channels.

The connotation of the articles is clear: "Die Sendung mit der Maus" is the most commonly named exemplary, popular programme whereas "Pokémon" is referred to as a negative example.

This is borne out by a parent survey we carried out. "Die Sendung mit der Maus" is the most frequently quoted as being a programme suitable for children, followed by the public broadcasting educational programme "Löwenzahn" (Dandelion) and "Sesamstraße" (Sesame Street), whose concept you presumably know. The reason given by the parents as to why these programmes are suitable for children is their instructive and age-appropriate contents. When asked about the "most unsuitable TV programmes for children", they put "Pokémon" at the top of the list.³ The most common reason given: the programmes contain violence.

In this context, it is interesting how the parents responded to the question as to which programme they liked watching most when they were kids themselves: the most frequent answer was again "Die Sendung mit der Maus", followed by "Sesamstraße".

For comparison purposes, some ratings of "Die Sendung mit der Maus" to illustrate a quantitative trend of whose attention is attracted to the programme. Statistics indicate that the programme is watched by children, but a much higher percentage of viewers are adults. The transmission on Germany's First Channel, the ARD, 71% of those viewing are over 14. And not because both parents and/or the grandparents are sitting in front of the television with the child. 50% of the viewers watching "Die Sendung mit der Maus" come from households without any children.⁴

Theses no. 2: Public attention focuses on children's programmes that are from public broadcasting services, quality-oriented and particularly on those handed down from one generation to the next. It does not always centre on what masses of children actually watch.

That was the initial position. How do the channels' communications agencies handle this situation? In expert interviews with the heads of the press offices (N=15) we had them describe their strategies and starting points. This survey indicates certain typical groups, i.e. ideal types.

A standard example of one type is the agency (PlanPunkt) commissioned by the channel WDR to do the press work for "Die Sendung mit der Maus". We were informed that the quality standard of "Die Sendung mit der Maus" is treated as the greatest good. The tradition of the programme is underlined, for example, by a touring exhibition in museums (the so-called "Mausoleum"), where, besides special features for children, there is always something for adults. The same goes for the big events (e.g. the "Maus-Show"), featuring attractions for kids - but with the focus always on quality standards, i.e. on the adults.

The other press offices of this type, which includes only public service broadcasters, pursue this strategy: they embrace the public expectations of children's TV (free of violence, tradition-conscious, education-oriented), seeking to reach children via adults. In cases of doubt, a potential public discussion is anticipated and work groups are set up, for example, or scientists commissioned in the preliminary stages.⁵ In some cases, attempts are made to deliberately stimulate public discussion.⁶ With regard to the journalists this can sometimes mean: "Reaching children and parents around the obstacle of the journalists" (head of the KI.KA press office). So the first strategy type: reaching children with the permission of the adults.

Two programmes right at the top of the market shares and hit lists - quoted by the children themselves - in 2002 / 2001 were "Pokémon" and - extremely "in" at present in Germany - "Dragon Ball Z". "Pokémon" achieved absolute peak rankings with children, school courtyards sometimes resembling a bazaar for "Pokémon" cards.

How was so much attention created about "Pokémon" in the kids' everyday lives? "Pokémon" is a text-book example of hype launched by the market. A complete media and event structure was established, with all its components interlocking in terms of content, time and user-orientation. Television offered attractive characters and information about the figures, which could then be bought and played with in card games and on Gameboy. Collecting the cards became a must in the respective peer group, leading to prestige, expertise and, most important, a lot of communication during card-swapping. Market shares got up right after the launch in September 1999 and rose to more than 65% among the 3- to 13-year-olds.

When did "Pokémon" enter the press? The transmission launch was accompanied by only 4 articles published in the 75 national newspapers and magazines in 1999, mainly alluding to the experience from Japan. The real public discussion about "Pokémon" did not start until 9 months after the launch. It was on the agenda of the press - but late and somehow like a peak in comparison to the attention which the children paid to the programme.

One thesis as to why the children's interest and the public attention have diverged in time is the following: to begin with, older children are targeted, whose TV consumption is more independent of parental perception and control. So this was a topic for kids - not for parents - right from the very start. It was not until family daily life had been infiltrated by "Pokémon" and the kids stepped up their demands for money to buy licensing products that the subject attracted the attention of adults and entered the agenda of the press. Public discussion on the subject of children's television takes place among adults via the children. Adults' attention is not diverted to a subject until it becomes a relevant issue in daily family life. It is only then that articles on this topic are sold; only then does it become relevant for journalists as parents or friends of parents.⁷

How does RTL 2 - the broadcaster of "Pokémon" and "Dragon Ball (Z)" - deal with public attention? In the interview, they stated that regarding the children's sector everyday press business was virtually their sole concern. Apart from the usual press bulletins to TV magazines or the specialist press in the children's and young people's magazine sector there were no specific strategies, they reported. If they are at all active, then at fairs for the fans. RTL 2 thus represents another strategy on the children's TV market in terms of an ideal type: the arousal of as little public attention as possible. Attention control is aimed at the target group itself; public opinion is avoided, if possible. The strategy type: reach the kids, - if necessary - without taking public discussion into consideration.

Between these two extremes there exists yet another strategy of directing attention: one prototype is the Disney-related channel Super RTL. Besides daily tasks real presence is exhibited in this case, for example at education fairs, media competence being promoted and imparted to the children viewing these channels. Research on children is also actively pursued. Lobbying is pursued to extend the discussion in potential problem areas such as "Children and Advertizing". Hence the channel joins the public debate between adults, emphasizing a viewpoint on violence that perfectly matches the publicly expressed opinion of parents.

These strategies are moreover very clearly reflected in the press coverage. The content analysis on the articles on "Children and Television generally" also examines the question of those depicted as active participants in children's television. In respect of television channels the following picture emerges: The children's channel KI.KA with just under 27% of the 1,115 articles is an active participant; the Disney channel Super RTL represents somewhat less than half, i.e. just under 12%; RTL 2 is hardly ever described as an active participant in drawing public attention. So journalists – representing and creating the public attention – followed somehow a little bit unreflected the broadcasters' strategies.

On the children's television market there is an economy of attention. On the one hand, it is aimed at the children's everyday life. The market offers them material they can use to attract attention for their individual problem areas in daily life (subjective-thematic function), to gain attention in their peer group – by way of expert knowledge and possession of highly-esteemed licensing products, for example (interactive function); it also offers them situations in which children can present themselves and be special by exhibiting expertise in Gameboy games, by proving themselves to parents and teachers, etc. (situative function). These moments are deliberately created in the case of "Pokémon" without explicitly considering the adult perspective. This strategy inherent in the programme is assumed in PR work by the avoidance of all kinds of discussion in the press as long as possible. It worked in the case of "Pokémon" and it is still working at the moment in the case of "Dragon Ball Z".

On the other hand, the public service broadcasting channels' strategy is closely aimed at achieving acceptance in public discussion. These channels are after all financed by the parents' television fees; they cannot dispense with the parents' benevolent eye. In a similar fashion, the channels financed by advertising have to rely on the highest ratings possible, i.e. on selling viewers' attention. Depending on the advertising clientele, they go about this business in tune with or, if necessary, even against public attention.

ANNOTATIONS

¹ Team: Sylvia Nagl, Oliver Schmid, Ole Hofmann, Birgitt Taffertshofer, Carolina Ensinger, Beate Kleiber
² Data basis: Bavarian Radio archive, where articles from 75 newspapers, periodicals, magazines and journals are evaluated.
³ Above the genre of "crime thrillers" and "Digimon".
⁴ Of course, the detailed picture is - as always - more complicated, for only half the number of viewers watch the "Maus" during the simultaneous transmission of the programme on Kinderkanal, but the ratio between children and parents is virtually even. Hence viewing attention is not only programme-related but also channel-related.
⁵ This was the case in the "Teletubbies", which subsequently received the corresponding amount of attention. Another example that - unexpectedly - failed to trigger any public discussion was "The Tribe", an Australian future soap.
⁶ One example is the current campaign "gi’me 5" (ARD, ZDF, KI.KA), aimed at promoting friendship and tolerance by way of cooperation.
⁷At the same time they target children's evident interests by demanding entertainment and not education. Research is carried out into the target group (for example in the annual survey of children's worlds 2000/2001/2002) and the findings are passed on to the advertizing clientele. The advertizing dilemma is solved - according to the press office - by stressing that advertizing is part of life, that children here at least receive the commercials and programmes intended for them.

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