Week Six: ABC Media Report

Article From: ABC Media Report
Title: Scorched
Presenter: Anthony Funnell
Date: August 28, 2008

Link: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2349346.htm

In this radio segment, Anthony Funnell speaks to Marcus Gillezeau, the screen producer of a new telemovie that aired on Channel Nine on Sunday night. However its not your average telemovie. It's a TV/online hybrid.

The telemovie is linked to a series of websites which have been running mini webisodes which both link into the telemovie and function as a story on their own. This whole experiment raises the issue which we are faced with more and more these days, the idea of producing texts and publications suitable for more than one medium. This offers the audience a range of viewing options and expands the market. It also puts pressure on companies to make publications in a number of formats to reach market demand.

As Marcus Gillezeau points out in this interview, there is also the opportunity for advertising companies to really reach large audiences through these different mediums. Instead of investing all their advertising 'eggs' in one basket, advertisers can produce advertising that will be seen and consumed by specific target audiences on the internet (that is those who go to a particular website for a particular reason) and the wider audience through televsion. There is also the possibility to audiences through print and radio, all through the same text which is slightly modified for each medium. It seems the possibilities are endless.

I think this new TV/online hybrid idea is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how we can link different mediums together through different publications. I think we've been presented with an opportunity to involve all types of media into a web of interactive and informative texts. As Anthony Funnell says, it might be complicated but that's the fun of it. It's a new, fresh way of presenting a text to the audience and I personally can't wait to see what's next!