The Band Age: a proposal for a crossmedia project

The Band Age:
A Cross-Media Project for Teen-Agers

PROJECT AIMS

The project aims:
- To produce a cross-media program that will educate the young audience in an entertaining way
- To present a program that will help adolescents face a range of developmental issues such as in the areas of work and relationships, intimacy and commitment to goals
- To present issues to the young audience that will help them develop their awareness and management of their emotions, help them in setting and realizing their personal goals and to provide models for decision making and responsible behaviours

TARGET GROUP

Adolescent youth (male and female) aged 15 to 24 years old.

According to the 2000 Philippine PopCom report:
Our youth comprised 15.1 million out of the 76.5 million Filipinos enumerated in the 2000 Census. This number is expected to double in 33 years. There were more males than females; 102 males for every 100 females. The median age of the youth population remained the same from 1980 to 2000 at 20 years. This means that half of the youth population was between 15 to 19 years old, the other half was between 20 to 24.Of the 16 regions in the country, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) has the highest (22%) and Eastern Visayas has the lowest (18%) proportions of youth population

It is at this age that young adults enter transitions with the goal of becoming independently functioning adults. They are constantly striving to meet evolving personal and career related needs. It is a must that the developmental issues they are encountering are addressed in such a way that they will be receptive to them.

They are exposed to mass media and rely on it for their entertainment, surveillance and socialization functions. They have access to new media such as the Internet and mobile phones. They have the potential to be active consumers and producers of content for these new media.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

“The Band Age” is a crossmedia project that makes us of different media platforms in telling the story of five teen-agers who are in a band. Primarily, it is a teen-age drama program that will tackle developmental issues in teen-agers.

Monique de Haas, in her website, Crossmedia Communication, defined crossmedia communication as "communication where the storyline will direct the receiver from one medium to the next" making it possible to transform the sender-receiver form of communication to "multi-dimensional communication".

The project is educational because common teen-age developmental issues are presented through the experiences of the characters. Viewers are expected to learn from the experiences of the characters. The program will also provide positive role models to the youth.

The focus of the project is on adolescent developmental issues such as:
Self-identity
Self-expression
Coping with their emotions / Intimacy
Interpersonal relationships (family, friends)
Sexuality
Coping with peer pressure
Drugs
Alcoholism

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Through exposure to our project we would like the target audience to:
Identify and understand the changes that they are going through – physically, mentally, emotionally
Learn how to maintain interpersonal relationships – family, friends, team, intimate
Realize and set their goals and aspirations and make concrete steps in attaining them
Identify their role in society and recognize their capacity in contributing to the betterment of society

COMMON PROBLEMS ADDRESSED BY THE PROJECT

It has been said, “children are our future”. So much is expected of the youth that it is crucial that they are prepared for the role they have to undertake in nation building. It is of great importance therefore that young adults are prepared, well adjusted, responsible and well educated before they embark on this role. Before they can take on any role, it is imperative that an individual is aware of himself and is able to evaluate his capabilities, dreams and limitations.

It is said that the most difficult stage one goes through while growing up is the adolescent stage or one’s teen-age years. It seems like everyone; teachers, parents, even teenagers themselves, have trouble understanding them.

The adolescent stage is the step next to the adult stage, the last step before being an adult. This time is crucial for young people because they are undergoing changes in all aspects of their totality and it is a time for them to start making decisions. (ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural Education)

It is at this stage that teen-agers encounter different and first experiences:
§ First love
§ First sexual encounter
§ Alcohol
§ Drugs
§ Going to college

All decisions they have to make at this point all determine, or at least contribute, to the outcome of the rest of their lives. Decisions they make at this time are critical to their future.

Unfortunately, it is also during this stage that adolescents start wanting to spend their time alone, assert their independence and explore possibilities in their lives. Resisting adult supervision, the teen-ager is left alone to make decisions that are vital to his existence. Common companion to the teen-ager at this time are their friends, and in most cases, the mass media. They unconsciously emulate the characters they see on TV, seek information through the Internet, bare their souls to online friends, keep in touch through their mobile friends. (Borgen and Amundson)

FILIPINO YOUTH SITUATIONER

The youth comprise 46% of the total population of the Philippines, 17% of which are between 12 – 19 years old. The Philippines, like the rests of the world is experiencing pervasive socio-economic and cultural transitions brought about by globalization.

Due to impact of broken families, absentee parents and lack of role models young people face issues of sexuality alone. Filipino youth are exposed to sex and sexuality earlier and in larger doses. The average age for the first sexual encounter for both men and women is 18, but some start as young as 12 years old. Pre-marital sex is also becoming more accepted. Sex is often unplanned, sporadic or a product of either being carried away or peer pressure. (Chan, “Perils of GenerationSex)

Filipino youth rely on technology to keep in touch. They are a high tech generation that is adept at computers. They use new media as the venue for exploring and defining their own identities and establishing their independence. It provides several ways for young people to communicate with each other, interact with what is on the site. They can create their own content. Relationships are characterized and even built on text messages and electronic mail (Pabico, “Virtually Yours”).


According to the 2006 McCann Inter-Generation Study, a new trend across all generations is emerging, the generation R (r for reality):

“They are aware of and are worried about more things than ever. Armed with more information from more sources along with the ability to choose the content they want to consume, one cannot mask, sanitize or romanticize things for them. They cannot be fooled because they know what is real. It is not a surprise that the reality TV genre is a hit. Moreover, the internet has become a more credible source of information whereas ads are seen as fabricated. Consumers can take more. They don’t need to be sheltered, contrived upon, or patronized.”

Increasing modes of consumption, cheap labor and globalization brought young people to call centers where most of the youth are employed, forced to changing their body clocks and compromising their relationships even their formal education for money. (Santiago, “Finding Spaces”)

30 hours of the young Filipino adults’ life weekly is spent on broadcast media. Among the varying TV shows, most appealing to the youth are sitcoms, news, variety shows and romance/drama shows. Least interesting to them are the talk shows as well as educational and documentary shows. Adolescent radio listeners mostly do so for music and to a lesser extent, news. (Cruz et. al., “Family Influences on the Lifestyle of the Filipino Youth)

TELEVISION PROGRAMME PROPOSAL

TITLE : The Band Age
PROGRAM LENGTH : 1 hour show
GENRE : Drama

PROGRAMME DESCRIPTION

“The Band Age” is a teen-age drama show that taps lives and sensibilities into the adolescent youth. It is about the lives of five (5) teen-agers who are trying to make a band. These five teen-agers are of different personalities and circumstances that make them unique and appealing to our young target audience.

Steven
Steven is the leader of the band. He already 22 years old and works as a computer technician. He likes his job because it gives him time to rehearse with his band. He lives in a boarding house managed by a family friend in Sampaloc. He is easy-going. He doesn’t have any angst. He can easily make friends. He is very organized. He easy to talk to, the typical “kuya” However, Steven has problems with commitments.

Eric
Eric lives with Steven. He is a budding filmmaker. He’s the joker in the group. He loves taking videos of him playing practical jokes on his friends and posting them online. He maintains a YouTube account where he posts his practical jokes and his video diary.

Adi
Adi is a Muslim. As such, he is expected to follow and respect his parents. He is struggling between following his parents and his religion and doing what he wants. He is into photography and music.

Frankie
Frankie is the “perfect girl”. She is pretty, intelligent and popular. She is the daughter of very doting parents and she appreciates everything they do for her. Her parents are very proud of her. Frankie maintains a blog which she regularly.

Chris
A single mom raises Chris. She thinks her mom is annoying and doesn’t understand her. Chris just transferred from another place and the members of the band are her only friends in town. She always in touch with her best friend, Kit, through instant messaging all the time; their correspondence acts as her diary.

Ariel
Ariel is the “role model” of the group. He is the “cool” older person; the type all the five teen-agers aspire to be. Ariel is a radio announcer and has a radio show. He also acts as the band’s manager and adviser.

TREATMENT

The TV show will be treated as a dramatized-montage with testimonials from the video diary and the YouTube posts of Eric, video storytelling using Adi’s photographs and screen captures of Frankie’s blog and Chris’ IM sessions with her best fried. These will be interspersed with third-person perspectives of the whole drama. All of the media that are done by all characters can be accessed through the Internet (see proposal for the Internet). The different media done by the band members gives the story flexibility by having it told from different perspectives of the characters.


RADIO PROGRAMME PROPOSAL

TITLE : Ariel’s Radio Show
PROGRAM LENGTH : 1 hour show
GENRE : Magazine

PROGRAMME DESCRIPTION

Ariel’s Radio Show is magazine show that encourages participation from teen-agers. It capitalizes on the personality of the programme presenter, Ariel. Ariel is hip; cool and can speak the language of the teen-agers. The program intersperses music and factoids with an advice segment wherein he encourages teen-agers with problems to call him and ask for his advise. Ariel not only gives his own advice but also gets the advice of experts, which he translates the language teen-agers understand.

The program likewise solicits what other teen-agers think by running a poll of what the teen-ager with the problem can do, listeners are given four choices of what they can advise the other teen-ager and are given a chance to text in the letter of their choice plus a short justification of their advice. The texter with the best advice wins something.

INTERNET PROGRAM PROPOSAL

The project capitalizes on all the free websites that are available to teen-agers around the world. These websites are popularly used by teen-agers on a regular basis to keep in touch with friends and express themselves. All these free media will be visibly used by the characters in the TV show and can be readily accessed by the viewers. The non-viewers of the show or non-listeners of the radio program can likewise access the web pages. The following are the internet components of the project that is a hybrid of the television show and is maintained using the free websites:

· Frankie’s Blog
o Frankie maintains a MySpace account where she keeps a blog. Wikipedia defines MySpace as “social networking website offering an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music, and videos”. Here Frankie can post her profile, pictures and a blog. MySpace has a Groups feature which allows a group of users to share a common page and message board.
o Frankie’s MySpace account will be regularly updated, following the events of the TV drama. Viewers can invite Frankie to be their friends and be regularly updated on her blog entries.
o It is also an opportunity for Frankie to speak “casually” of products she has tried recently. Sort of testimonials for sponsors.



· Eric’s YouTube accounts
o Eric, the group’s resident prankster and budding filmmaker, maintains two YouTube accounts. Wikipedia defines YouTube as “a popular free video sharing Web site which lets users upload, view, and share video clips.” Eric’s first account contains all the pranks he played on his friends. This is to create traffic on Eric’s YouTube account. In the TV drama, we will show Eric playing pranks on his friends and posting it on his YouTube account. Viewers can access these pranks and watch them online.
o Eric’s 2nd YouTube account will be of his video diary. Eric will maintain a videoblog. Wikipedia defines a videoblog as “a portmanteau combining video, web, and log, (usually shortened to vlog) is a blog that includes video.[1] Regular entries are typically presented in reverse chronological order and often combine embedded video or a video link with supporting text, images, and other metadata.” The TV drama will include snippets of Eric’s video blog on the show but they can access full versions of it through YouTube.
o Frankie’s MySpace account will have a link to Eric’s YouTube accounts.

· Chris’ Yahoo Messenger account
o In the TV drama, Chris will be seen as constantly being in-touch with her best friend in the place where she came from via Instant Messaging. Wikipedia defines instant messaging or IM as “a form of real-time communication between two or more people based on typed text. The text is conveyed via computers connected over a network such as the Internet.” Chris will be using this a lot that it will almost be like her diary.
o Although the viewers cannot access Chris’ conversations with Kit, her best friend, Chris will maintain a Yahoo Messenger account that viewers can invite Chris to have a “chat” with them. Chris will be available in the virtual word as a friend who also has her hang-ups they can identify with.

Website of Ariel’s Radio Show
· Aside from the free Internet websites that we are using, we will also create a website of Ariel’s Radio Show. Where radio listeners can:
o Listen to a live broadcast of Ariel’s Radio Show
o Chat with Ariel or other listeners of the radio show
o Send an email to Ariel asking him for advice
o Get information on the band that Ariel is managing
o See pictures of Ariel and the band
· The website can also be an opportunity for sponsors to advertise

OTHER MEDIA OPPORTUNITIES

· Mobile Phone
o The radio show has an SMS component where in listeners can text in their advice, the texter with the best advice wins a prize
o Viewers/listeners can subscribe to a mobile service which will allow them to exchange SMS with their favourite characters from the show
o Subscribed viewers/listeners can regularly receive updates on the show and the characters

· Recording
o The band can issue an album containing all their compositions
o A compilation album of all the songs used in the show can also be released
· Print
o Portions of the Frankie’s blogs can be printed on some magazines as insert or a regular column in a newspaper
o Frankie can run an advise column
· Concerts
o The band can hold mini-concerts in malls and campuses to promote the show and the other media

PROJECT COMPONENTS AND TIMELINE
The project will be carried out using different platforms. Specifically, they are the following:

1. Television
§ Teen-age drama about 5 band members
§ 1 hour weekly show

2. Radio
§ Musical-talk show
§ 1 hour weekly show

3. Internet
§ Will use existing free websites such as Blogspot and YouTube because they are easily accessible to the target audience
§ Creation and maintenance of a weekly blog by one of the characters on the television show
§ Creation and maintenance of a weekly video diary by one of the characters on the television show

4. Print
§ Creation and distribution of a “fanzine” by one of the characters of the television show
§ Every two weeks

5. Mobile
§ Sending out of mass texts by one of the characters on the television show

Other possible initiatives in the future:
§ Concerts
§ Phone Helpline

I. Context of the Project - Filipino Youth

In his article, Theories of Adolescence, Michael Berzonsky outlines some of the studies that have been made on the period in one’s life called adolescence. He says that although the academic discipline of adolescent psychology originated in the 20th century, scholars have already been making distinctions among children, youth and adults before the modern era (2000). Aristotle defined youth adulthood from puberty to age 21 and viewed adolescents as being “impulsive, moody and controlled by their passions” (cited in Berzonsky, 2000).

Erik Erikson identified eight life-span stages that a person goes through, each stage assumed to build upon one another in a cumulative manner. Stage 5, Identity and Diffusion, refers to adolescence, “the stage when adolescents actively attempt to integrate their experiences in an attempt to construct a stable sense of personal identity” (cited in Berzonsky, 2000). Erikson emphasizes that adolescents need to be able to see themselves as products of their previous experiences. He said that positive resolutions of prior crises aid the process of identity formation while previous failures may lead to identity diffusion.

Robert J. Havighurst defined six developmental stages a person goes through, defining adolescence from age 13 to 18 years old and identifies the following as the developmental tasks of this stage:
· Achieving new and more mature relations with age mates of both sexes.
· Achieving a masculine or feminine social role.
· Accepting one’s physique and using the body effectively.
· Achieving emotional independence of parents and other adults.
· Preparing for marriage and family life.
· Acquiring a set of values and an ethical system as a guide to behavior.
· Desiring and achieving socially responsible behavior.

Jean Piaget, on the other hand, viewed adolescents as perceptive individuals “actively attempting to construct an understanding of their world” (cited in Berzonsky, 2000). He cites cognition and intellectual ability as a means by which adolescents deal with everyday life and cognitive developments ensues through four different stages: the sensori-motor stage, preoperational stage, concrete-operational stage and formal-operational stage. The formal operational stage happens during adolescence and it is the stage which brings cognition to its final form. Formal operational thinkers do not stop at describing what has occurred, but attempts to explain why things happened; they think in terms of the broader realm of hypothetical possibilities. It is at this stage that adolescents engage in “hypothetical-deductive reasoning in order to test and verify the possible explanations or hypotheses they generate” (cited in Berzosky, 2000).

Granville Stanley Hall, acknowledged father of adolescent psychology, identified many major dimensions of adolescent development and put major emphasis on the hypothesis that “adolescence was universally an extraordinarily turbulent and stressful period of life” (cited in Berzonsky, 2000).

Adolescence is often defined as a time of many transitions, being that time between childhood and adulthood. Natividad and Puyat identifies these transitions as physical changes, cognitive development, moral reasoning and values formation and are concerned that, due to rapid socioeconomic and cultural change, the Filipino youth may not accomplish successful transition into “stable and productive adult status” (2004).

Chapter 1: Context of the Project: Introduction

Chapter 1
CONTEXT OF THE PROJECT



Introduction

Unfold, oh timid flower! Lift up your radiant brow,This day, Youth of my native
strand!Your abounding talents showResplendently and grand,Fair hope of my
Motherland!

- To the Philippine Youth, Jose P. Rizal

No less than our national hero declared the youth as the “hope of our future”. So much is expected of the youth that it is crucial that they are prepared for the role they have to undertake in nation building. It is of great importance that young adults are prepared, well adjusted, responsible and well educated before they embark on this role. Before they can take on any role, it is imperative that an individual is aware of him self and is able to evaluate his capabilities, dreams and limitations.

In the book “Filipino Youth in Transition”, Josefina Natividad and Joseph Puyat emphasized the importance of preparing today’s adolescents for these transitions:

“…today’s youth appear to face far more complex challenges brought about by such
developments as the rapid pace of innovations in technology, resulting in the
multiplicity of sources of information, opportunities for social interaction and
alternatives for leisure, sweeping lifestyle changes, radical changes in sexual
and gender related norms, a markedly changed market and highly competitive
economics, a liberal and at times even anarchic mass media.”

Natividad and Puyat put emphasis on how advancements in technology are affecting how adolescents are getting information, processing them and applying them in their social and personal lives. Indeed, technology is playing big part in the Filipino adolescents’ life. In an article for iReport, Alecks Pabico pronounced that technology has “redefined the barkada” and mentioned that the Filipino youth are a “high tech generation” that relies on technology to keep in touch. He further asserts that:

“They use new media as the venue for exploring and defining their own identities
and establishing their independence. It provides several ways for young people
to communicate with each other, interact with what is on the site. They can
create their own content. Relationships are characterized and even built on text
messages and electronic mail.”

In a study conducted by McCann-Erickson, it has been concluded that “media has become surrogate parents” to todays youth with the television taking the lead in terms of consumption. The television is more than just a source of information and entertainment for them; it is their “kapuso”, “kapamilya” and “kabarkada”. In a society that has been heavily permeated by the mass media, it should be considered that “mass media do not simply reflect but significantly construct realities” (Applebaum and Chambliss 1997 cited in Page, 2004). Page, further stresses that due to the growing importance the television plays in shaping the youth’s choices of role models, it is of imperative that we go beyond the family and also consider the other agents of socialization that assert influence on today’s youth (Page, 2004).

Arizona State University’s Hans Sebald points out how television gives human beings “a constant barrage of stimuli that bear significantly on personality development”. Human beings need not only rely on actual presence of people or objects to form views of themselves or the world when the television provides them with a “window to the world”. Mass media, particularly the television, offers adolescents with a vast assortment of characters, from role models to best friends to dream boys. In the research conducted by Natividad et al, they found out that although the youth still look up to their parents and teachers as role models, a significant number surfaced declaring movie and television personalities and characters as their role models, mostly because of their looks, fashion sense and popularity (Natividad, 2004). It was suggested by George Gerbner that television’s influence lies mainly in its ability to convey ideas about social behavior, social norms and social structures (cited in Cumberbatch, 1995).

With the ever changing yet very crucial role the television is playing in the lives of adolescents, it is necessary that television program producers step up and assume responsibility in presenting educational programs that the youth can identify with and learn from.

Thesis Thoughts

I have to finalize what I finally want to do soon. Sev (the Sev Sarmenta, my thesis adviser) told me to organize my thoughts and do my related literature and I did just that. Now I have this thick print-out of journals and researches I've downloaded from the Internet. I am so happy because Sage Publications gave me free access to their cultural journals and so I've a lot to read now. I want Henry Jenkins' Convergence book... I have to check that one out in the Ateneo Lib or Powerbooks.

Today I pitch the Band Age to UniversiTV and I'm still thinking how they would respond to the proposal. It seems easy to me, well at least on my level. As for my thesis, last night I was thinking, what would this thesis be about.

Although I've been getting a lot of researches on the topic of crossmedia from other countries, very little information on crossmedia is available locally. I don't even know if there's a cross media project "out there". I'm saying this of course as someone who is working in the entertainment industry and as far I know, nothing similar to crossmedia communication is happening locally. The closest I can think of is what ABS-CBN is doing to Pinoy Big Brother. They have the TV components - the regular show on Primetime and the Uplate (on ABS-CBN) and the PBB on 23 and the Live Streaming in the morning on Studio 23. They also have the website that has news, pictures and features for voting and "interactive" stuff (which is actually a call to spend more money using your cellphone: download this, text in to win this, etc.). In previous seasons, ABS-CBN also published PBB Magazines.

Based on what I'm currently reading on the subject, this doesn't make it the cut to be considered as crossmedia storytelling, but does it qualify as crossmedia communication? Again, latching on the meaning I got from Monique de Haas, I don't think so. A student of mine who works for ABS-CBN said that it has a division that executes promotional efforts through different platforms but it still is not crossmedia.

Which got me to thinking last night, what if I research on the possibilities of crossmedia communication in the Philippines? Are Filipinos ready for the experience? When I encountered the crossmedia concept in the Netherlands months back I was amazed at how they were doing things and how one can adapt it using much simpler means. Hence, our proposal for Band Age, which adopts the crossmedia concept using very simple websites such as YouTube and Multiply. It doesn't have to be executed on a grand scale, well, perhaps it depends on who you want to reach.

As I was discussing to a friend what crossmedia storytelling is, I gave the story of "Ederlyn" as an example. I told her, if a TV show about Ederlyn or a tabloid column is regularly written about Ederlyn, she could well be the pioneering crossmedia queen! "Sino si Ederlyn" text jokes started out with this simple text message: Ui, invited tau s bday party ni ederlyn 2m ng 6pm. CnO b un? Kilala m b?FinOrward lng skn e. (Hey, we're invited to Ederly's birthday party tomorrow at 18:00. Who is she by the way? Do you know her? This message was just forwarded to me.) Perhaps it was Ederlyn's kitschy name but this message was forwarded and forwarded that by now, Ederlyn has become a household name. For my Film and Video class, one group produced an "Ederlyn" short film and a musical variety show was produced by MusiCASA; and this was just in UST, I'm sure an "Ederlyn" craze is also happening in other places. Which got me thinking, whoever thought of starting this Ederlyn thing is up to thinking... is there an upcoming movie somewhere? But months have passed and still no word about an Ederlyn... sayang!

This friend of mine did not receive any forwarded Ederlyn jokes, pity on her, but she did tell me of a similar "phenomenon" which happened years back, the story of Chona Mae. Chona Mae is a maid from Romblon who blogs. Her blog has 279,502 hits. Again, whoever thought of Chona Mae should have made a lot of money if they told her story crossmedia.

So what's my thesis about? Hmmm... nothing certain yet. But I'm thinking of an exploratory study on the possibilities of doing crossmedia locally, with a survey on its viability using the Ederlyn and Chona Mae stories as examples. Hmmm... whatchathink?

It might come this year...

Crossmedia might break in the Philippines this year. I mean, more producers might consciously do crossmedia/transmedia storytelling soon. I am set to pitch the Band Age to a cable channel tomorrow (flutter in my stomach, arrrgh!). This morning, I was chatting with a student of mine who was working for a mobile marketing company. I asked her if they were doing anything not related to marketing (text promos etc.) and she said for now they were doing it for marketing but this year, they have something in their pipeline that seems similar to what I was talking about. Hmmm... it might come this year. Crossmedia might start happening in the Philippines this year.

Crossmedia Playground in Manila?!

I'm tickled pink! Someone, someone actually not related to me, has read my blog! Yey!

What things are going on on the crossmedia playground in Manilla? Are publishers involved? Newspapers? Who comes up with new formats? Where does radio and television fit in? What about narrowcasting and what about the printing industry?

Thanks,

Peter Luit

Netherlands

I don't think there are crossmedia formats in Manila, much more a "crossmedia playground" to speak of, there's not even a crossmedia sandbox! The first time I ever encountered such word was there in the Netherlands and if I do look closely at the media landscape locally, I can point a few projects that go by the name "interactive" rather than crossmedia. Major players are newspapers and television companies. Mostly these projects are just supports to their television programs that provide additional information and a venue for their money making ventures like mobile downloads. Some television programs are available on mobile via streaming video content but these are just reruns of the programming they have shown on TV and not specifically created for mobile.

As far as storylines that "direct the receiver from one medium to the next", I don't think we have such formats yet. As for narrowcasting, there are a few products that use this as a marketing strategy and there is this production company that produces local shows specifically for podcasting.

I am yet to discover what is really out here with regards to crossmedia formats. But this is what is happening locally as far as I know. Thanks for your question, Peter! Groetjes!

Cross-media Communication: Where it all started for me.

Monique de Haas, in her website, Crossmedia Communication defined crossmedia communication as "communication where the storyline will direct the receiver from one medium to the next" making it possible to transform the sender-receiver form of communication to "multi-dimensional communication".

I came across the idea of cross-media communication in the Netherlands where we were trained to create cross-media programs for children. My first encounter of it was in a session with Rob Prass, through his talk on "Learning Through Games and Play". He discussed how games are being used in educational programs in Europe and showed us an episode of Bamzooki. Weeks later, at the 20th Cinekid Festival in Amsterdam, we attended a seminar on Hands on TV (HOT) moderated by Children's BBC's Sue Nott.

The seminar featured speakers who talked talked about the successful formats in cross-media entertainment and how they were created. Bruno Felix of Submarine, NL did the introduction on interactive television and cross-media formats. The most exciting part for all of us EPPC participants was the presentation by Paul Tyler of Gameware Media who presented about Bamzooki, a mixed reality game show in which children use computer-designed fantasy animals (which they call "zooks") to fight with one another. It was very exciting for us because only a few weeks ago, Rob Prass was showing us an episode in the Corner Room and now we're face to face with THE creator!

Bamzooki offers "unique cross media output delivering a fully integrated televisoin and internet experience where contestants make and race computer generated creatures "zooks". The website allows users to download a creature building software that allows them to create and own their own running, jumping and crawling zooks. The software allows the users to upload and download Zooks into a massive online database for entry in to the daily leagues and galleries. There's also the chance to appear in the televised game show that provides a battle arena for the Zooks. The website also offers a community forum where members can share tips and tricks.

As someone from the entertainment industry though, what piqued my interest the most was Nuno Bernardo's presentation of Sofia's Diary. For me, Sofia's Diary is the total cross-media package for the teenager combining the traditional media like TV, books and feature films and new media like the Internet and mobile. An article on this website describes Sofia's Diary as "an Interactive Mobile Service uses new technologies to tell in an interactive and multi-channel way the story of a typical 17 years old girl, Sofia. This is one of the first projects to simultaneously use as a complementary way diverse medias with specific contents and mechanics for each media. Sofia's Diary content is published on the Web, in a teen magazine, on daily newspapers, aired on a teen Radio station and a Cable TV Show. Users can follow the story everywhere and interact with it using their mobile phones".

Well, this is what started it for me. I do hope I get somewhere with it. I'm now exploring the Philippine landscape to see if we have a semblance of cross-media entertainment locally. Hopefully, with this thesis, I'll be able to contribute, if not start, a significant contribution to this body of emerging knowledge (at least locally).

**all photos on this page courtesy of Adi Panuntun