Framework:
Channel 4 Education is addressing the 14 – 19s audience within the following framework:
• Who am I and Where am I Going?
• How do I Make Sense of and Communicate with the World?
• What is my Role in Communities, Cultures and Economies?
• How Do I Describe, Analyse and Shape the World around Me?
These questions lead us to five key ‘zones’ for C4 Education:
1. GETTING ON
2. MY LIFE ONLINE
3. ENTREPRENEURSHIP
4. CAMPAIGNS
5. TV PLUS
Channel 4 Education is addressing the 14 – 19s audience within the following framework:
• Who am I and Where am I Going?
• How do I Make Sense of and Communicate with the World?
• What is my Role in Communities, Cultures and Economies?
• How Do I Describe, Analyse and Shape the World around Me?
These questions lead us to five key ‘zones’ for C4 Education:
1. GETTING ON
2. MY LIFE ONLINE
3. ENTREPRENEURSHIP
4. CAMPAIGNS
5. TV PLUS
MORE DETAIL ON THE 5 KEY ZONES:
1. GETTING ON
This zone covers the transition to adulthood through the key themes of:
• RELATIONSHIPS
Getting the most from different relationships (peers, family, friends; teachers, authority figures; work-place colleagues/bosses)
• WORK
What am I going to do with my life? How can I improve my chances?
Understanding and preparing for the world of work
Collaborating with others
• WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW (BUT NO-ONE EVER TELLS YOU)
Key life skills without having to find out the hard way
Sex, drugs, money, etc. – really core stuff
What we want:
• Innovative cross platform projects that will appeal to 14 - 19s.
• Education that isn’t labelled “EDUCATION”: we want the platforms and the partnerships that will make learning fun and creative for this age group.
• Intriguing, engaging approaches to what can be dry subjects in the wrong hands. Practical help combined with inspiration. A clever blend of fun and useful information.
• A place you want to be. And want to come back to.
• New ways of reaching 14 – 19s.
What we don’t want:
• Dry, ‘authority’, worthy approaches.
• Editorial that tells how you ‘should’ behave, think or feel.
• Curriculum-based formal content.
• Television simply moved online. (i.e. this is not an exercise in TV distribution).
• Content that is already available elsewhere.
What we like:
TV Programmes such as Don’t Make Me Angry; Batty Man/My Big Gay Prom; Young Black Farmers
AQA (sms service)
www.pink-world.co.uk
Bebo Be One
What’s not right for C4:
Definitive online guides to a subject or issue – we want to start conversations, not build libraries…
1. GETTING ON
This zone covers the transition to adulthood through the key themes of:
• RELATIONSHIPS
Getting the most from different relationships (peers, family, friends; teachers, authority figures; work-place colleagues/bosses)
• WORK
What am I going to do with my life? How can I improve my chances?
Understanding and preparing for the world of work
Collaborating with others
• WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW (BUT NO-ONE EVER TELLS YOU)
Key life skills without having to find out the hard way
Sex, drugs, money, etc. – really core stuff
What we want:
• Innovative cross platform projects that will appeal to 14 - 19s.
• Education that isn’t labelled “EDUCATION”: we want the platforms and the partnerships that will make learning fun and creative for this age group.
• Intriguing, engaging approaches to what can be dry subjects in the wrong hands. Practical help combined with inspiration. A clever blend of fun and useful information.
• A place you want to be. And want to come back to.
• New ways of reaching 14 – 19s.
What we don’t want:
• Dry, ‘authority’, worthy approaches.
• Editorial that tells how you ‘should’ behave, think or feel.
• Curriculum-based formal content.
• Television simply moved online. (i.e. this is not an exercise in TV distribution).
• Content that is already available elsewhere.
What we like:
TV Programmes such as Don’t Make Me Angry; Batty Man/My Big Gay Prom; Young Black Farmers
AQA (sms service)
www.pink-world.co.uk
Bebo Be One
What’s not right for C4:
Definitive online guides to a subject or issue – we want to start conversations, not build libraries…
MY LIFE ONLINE: DIGITAL LITERACY
What we want:
• To help 14 – 19s see their media world in context – how their life online relates to the ‘real world’; what’s affecting what is available to them and what’s coming next.
• Applications/services that can be placed on other platforms e.g. on MySpace or Facebook or Google Maps
• Learning by doing; getting recognition from peers rather than institutions
What we don’t want:
• Anything actually using terms like ‘digital literacy’, ‘media literacy’, etc.
• Anything that fails to recognise that, by and large, 14-19s are usually more fluent and often more literate than older age groups are.
What we like:
www.current.tv
Breaking the News Channel4 Breaking the News
Revver
TV programmes such as Get Me the Producer; What’s this Channel 4?
What we want:
• To help 14 – 19s see their media world in context – how their life online relates to the ‘real world’; what’s affecting what is available to them and what’s coming next.
• Applications/services that can be placed on other platforms e.g. on MySpace or Facebook or Google Maps
• Learning by doing; getting recognition from peers rather than institutions
What we don’t want:
• Anything actually using terms like ‘digital literacy’, ‘media literacy’, etc.
• Anything that fails to recognise that, by and large, 14-19s are usually more fluent and often more literate than older age groups are.
What we like:
www.current.tv
Breaking the News Channel4 Breaking the News
Revver
TV programmes such as Get Me the Producer; What’s this Channel 4?
Entrepeneurship
What we want:
• Lively, accessible, popular approaches to enterprise, with room for people to experiment and share their ideas
• Approaches to business that reflect different aspirations than just power and greed – ie niche businesses enabled by the Internet; new service concepts and social entrepreneurship
• Charismatic people to share their know-how and experience, and inspire others to try.
What we don’t want:
• Formal, dry business programmes
• More Apprentice look-a-likes
What we liked:
TV Programmes like Jamie’s Chef, Risking It All
4Talent Networks4talent
Etsy.com
Threadless.com
Cambrian House
Make Your Mark
Kiva
Zopa
CAMPAIGNS
What we want:
• Clear focus and achievable outcome(s)
• Areas where 14-19s actually have influence or control
• Initiatives which make the most of networked digital media, especially reflecting different dynamics online – ie ground-up, rather than top-down campaigns
What we don’t want:
• Not just a description of a cause - clarity about how we can support and enable participation
• Projects using celebrities as a way of raising awareness of a cause – this feels like a tired strategy, and we can engage our audience in far more compelling ways through their peers online (using word-of-mouth, viral campaigns, etc)
What we like
• They Work for You
• Pledge Bank
• Petitions.pm.gov.uk
Also see Zone 5 below about extending an existing peaktime commission into a campaign.
What we want:
• Lively, accessible, popular approaches to enterprise, with room for people to experiment and share their ideas
• Approaches to business that reflect different aspirations than just power and greed – ie niche businesses enabled by the Internet; new service concepts and social entrepreneurship
• Charismatic people to share their know-how and experience, and inspire others to try.
What we don’t want:
• Formal, dry business programmes
• More Apprentice look-a-likes
What we liked:
TV Programmes like Jamie’s Chef, Risking It All
4Talent Networks4talent
Etsy.com
Threadless.com
Cambrian House
Make Your Mark
Kiva
Zopa
CAMPAIGNS
What we want:
• Clear focus and achievable outcome(s)
• Areas where 14-19s actually have influence or control
• Initiatives which make the most of networked digital media, especially reflecting different dynamics online – ie ground-up, rather than top-down campaigns
What we don’t want:
• Not just a description of a cause - clarity about how we can support and enable participation
• Projects using celebrities as a way of raising awareness of a cause – this feels like a tired strategy, and we can engage our audience in far more compelling ways through their peers online (using word-of-mouth, viral campaigns, etc)
What we like
• They Work for You
• Pledge Bank
• Petitions.pm.gov.uk
Also see Zone 5 below about extending an existing peaktime commission into a campaign.
TV Plus: Peaktime Education Subjects
If you are producing a peaktime series for the Channel, do talk to Education about opportunities for creating complementary interactive content and spin-off projects with a 14-19 focus. Series from Features, History/Science/Religion/Arts and Factual Entertainment are particularly fertile territory. Adam Gee is the key contact for you in the Education department.
In general, we won’t be looking to just create a website for a peak-time show, but to think about how we can take the core issues and stories from a show and make them relevant to our 14-19 yr-old audience. The projects we commission will be stand-alone experiences that will make sense to our audience, regardless of whether they have watched the peak-time show. A good model for this is the game CDX, commissioned from Preloaded by the BBC to accompany the Rome TV series. This was a popular and compelling game that garnered good reviews from hard-core gaming websites, without just relying on cross-promotion from the peaktime series.
If you are producing a peaktime series for the Channel, do talk to Education about opportunities for creating complementary interactive content and spin-off projects with a 14-19 focus. Series from Features, History/Science/Religion/Arts and Factual Entertainment are particularly fertile territory. Adam Gee is the key contact for you in the Education department.
In general, we won’t be looking to just create a website for a peak-time show, but to think about how we can take the core issues and stories from a show and make them relevant to our 14-19 yr-old audience. The projects we commission will be stand-alone experiences that will make sense to our audience, regardless of whether they have watched the peak-time show. A good model for this is the game CDX, commissioned from Preloaded by the BBC to accompany the Rome TV series. This was a popular and compelling game that garnered good reviews from hard-core gaming websites, without just relying on cross-promotion from the peaktime series.
Our Audience
The web is 16 yrs old in 2007, so 14-19 yr olds are the first generation that has grown up with the web as part of their life. This means that their expectations and attitudes are different – they expect to engage and control their media experiences, and to share experiences with friends across platforms and technologies. When developing a cross-platform project, we think its more important to think about the different kinds of social spaces teens are using online (and offline), rather than about technology platforms or formats. As teens’ real worlds have become more regulated and controlled (for example, access to public spaces, parents’ paranoia about letting them out of the home, etc) they are adopting spaces online that offer the same opportunities to socialise and experiment with their emerging identities and values.
To help you think about this, we’ve created a rough typology of teens’ social spaces, based on who they are socialising with, and what kinds of relationships and interactions they might engage in. Some of these spaces map to specific technologies or platforms, but there are lots of cross-overs and grey areas between them as well. One of the opportunities of cross-platform commissioning will be exploring these spaces, and the cross-overs between them.
Secret Spaces
Technologies like SMS and IM (Instant Messaging) are very popular for teens, creating intimate spaces for gossip and chat within public spaces and wider social events. How is this changing the way teens relate to each other, to their parents, or to institutions like schools? Is it possible to create content for these spaces, or are they guarded as individual personal spaces?
Group Spaces
These are spaces where teens can chat and share content with a group of like-minded friends. Many of the group spaces online (eg facebook, myspace, bebo, etc) use buddy-lists to define your network, but often messages between friends are visible to a much wider, ‘invisible’ audience. How do these group networks differ from more ‘traditional’ networks based around schools, clubs or the workplace? Will they continue to be valued support networks throughout your life, or are they part of the process of becoming a socialised adult? What are the new opportunities or pressures when your social status is visible to everyone online?
Publishing Spaces
Technology has made it easier than ever before for teens to publish their thoughts and creative work to a global audience. Sites like Blogger, Flickr, Odeo and Youtube have made it easy to create and distribute audio-visual content. As a result, 14-19 yr-olds have the opportunity to test their opinions, their beliefs, their talents – to discover their ‘voice’ – and to get feedback from friends and strangers all over the worlds. Does creating and publishing your own content change your attitude to traditional media?
Performing Spaces
These are spaces where teens can show off their skills within a game structure – anything from World of Warcraft to playing for a football team or appearing in a play. Performing spaces use rules to create a platform for expression, for showing off, for fantasy, or for team work. They are spaces for extreme behaviour, where teens can imaging what it would be like to be someone else or somewhere else, and to transcend their everyday lives. How can these spaces be used to explore difficult or complex issues? How can we create compelling, playful experiences that empower teens and help them understand the boundaries and opportunities in their everyday life?
Participation Spaces
The internet has enabled large groups of people to collaborate and achieve their goals. This could be meeting up to discuss shared issues www.meetup.com organising an event to protest or raise awareness, or creating a market to share goods or skills eg Treadless. We’re interested in projects that use these new platforms to encourage participation, creating real impact in the world, not just asking you to sign a petition of send a text message of support. What are the triggers for participation online? What are the issues that teens are, or should be, really passionate about? We’re interested in projects that are about more than politics – about teens working together to create things for fun, to make money or to develop their skills and networks, as well as for more social or political goals.
Watching Spaces
Linear media is still a major part of teens lives online. Gigs, Theatre, Cinema and Television are still important parts of teens’ cultural and social lives, but technology has enhances the social experience around these events, helping you to organise a night out, meet up and chat with friends, or share memories and photos after an event. How are these technologies changing teens attitudes to linear media? In our timeshifted, on-demand culture, what kind of events still demand our attention and attendance? What kind of content demands to be experienced as part of a crowd, rather than an individual?
The web is 16 yrs old in 2007, so 14-19 yr olds are the first generation that has grown up with the web as part of their life. This means that their expectations and attitudes are different – they expect to engage and control their media experiences, and to share experiences with friends across platforms and technologies. When developing a cross-platform project, we think its more important to think about the different kinds of social spaces teens are using online (and offline), rather than about technology platforms or formats. As teens’ real worlds have become more regulated and controlled (for example, access to public spaces, parents’ paranoia about letting them out of the home, etc) they are adopting spaces online that offer the same opportunities to socialise and experiment with their emerging identities and values.
To help you think about this, we’ve created a rough typology of teens’ social spaces, based on who they are socialising with, and what kinds of relationships and interactions they might engage in. Some of these spaces map to specific technologies or platforms, but there are lots of cross-overs and grey areas between them as well. One of the opportunities of cross-platform commissioning will be exploring these spaces, and the cross-overs between them.
Secret Spaces
Technologies like SMS and IM (Instant Messaging) are very popular for teens, creating intimate spaces for gossip and chat within public spaces and wider social events. How is this changing the way teens relate to each other, to their parents, or to institutions like schools? Is it possible to create content for these spaces, or are they guarded as individual personal spaces?
Group Spaces
These are spaces where teens can chat and share content with a group of like-minded friends. Many of the group spaces online (eg facebook, myspace, bebo, etc) use buddy-lists to define your network, but often messages between friends are visible to a much wider, ‘invisible’ audience. How do these group networks differ from more ‘traditional’ networks based around schools, clubs or the workplace? Will they continue to be valued support networks throughout your life, or are they part of the process of becoming a socialised adult? What are the new opportunities or pressures when your social status is visible to everyone online?
Publishing Spaces
Technology has made it easier than ever before for teens to publish their thoughts and creative work to a global audience. Sites like Blogger, Flickr, Odeo and Youtube have made it easy to create and distribute audio-visual content. As a result, 14-19 yr-olds have the opportunity to test their opinions, their beliefs, their talents – to discover their ‘voice’ – and to get feedback from friends and strangers all over the worlds. Does creating and publishing your own content change your attitude to traditional media?
Performing Spaces
These are spaces where teens can show off their skills within a game structure – anything from World of Warcraft to playing for a football team or appearing in a play. Performing spaces use rules to create a platform for expression, for showing off, for fantasy, or for team work. They are spaces for extreme behaviour, where teens can imaging what it would be like to be someone else or somewhere else, and to transcend their everyday lives. How can these spaces be used to explore difficult or complex issues? How can we create compelling, playful experiences that empower teens and help them understand the boundaries and opportunities in their everyday life?
Participation Spaces
The internet has enabled large groups of people to collaborate and achieve their goals. This could be meeting up to discuss shared issues www.meetup.com organising an event to protest or raise awareness, or creating a market to share goods or skills eg Treadless. We’re interested in projects that use these new platforms to encourage participation, creating real impact in the world, not just asking you to sign a petition of send a text message of support. What are the triggers for participation online? What are the issues that teens are, or should be, really passionate about? We’re interested in projects that are about more than politics – about teens working together to create things for fun, to make money or to develop their skills and networks, as well as for more social or political goals.
Watching Spaces
Linear media is still a major part of teens lives online. Gigs, Theatre, Cinema and Television are still important parts of teens’ cultural and social lives, but technology has enhances the social experience around these events, helping you to organise a night out, meet up and chat with friends, or share memories and photos after an event. How are these technologies changing teens attitudes to linear media? In our timeshifted, on-demand culture, what kind of events still demand our attention and attendance? What kind of content demands to be experienced as part of a crowd, rather than an individual?
How to Pitch
We are asking people to pitch in a way that is very different from existing TV pitches, and also slightly different from traditional software pitches. Here’s some guidelines for indies about how to pitch.
The initial pitch
Intial pitches should be 1/2 pages, leading on the story or issue that the project addresses, and submitted via the online commissioning system. We would suggest using the ‘NABC’ format, focusing on four key elements of the project:
Need – what is the audience need that your idea will address?
Approach – how will the project you propose address these needs?
Benefits – what are the benefits of your approach for the user/client?
Competition – what else is there in the market that addresses the same needs?
Detailed technology strategies are not as important in initial pitches as proving that the story/issue is relevant to our target audience, and that it addresses a real need.
Development pitches
If we decide to fund development work, we will ask indies to answer more specific questions about the platforms for delivery, and also to think about the lifecycle of the whole project – the Before/During/After. This will require more of a user-centric approach to describing the project. Example questions might include:
Before
Who are your target users?
Where are they spending their time?
What platforms/spaces are they using?
What is the competition for their attention?
What is the gap/need you’re targeting?
How are your users going to first hear about the project?
How are they going to tell their friends?
How can they register their commitment to the project?
During
What will we ask users to do?
How is this different from what they are already doing?
Who will they be doing this with?
How can they share the experience?
How will we encourage participation?
What will they need to take part?
How will we reward participation?
How will we users credit C4 as the brand behind the project?
After
How will the project end?
How can people record their experience?
How can they share it with others?
How can they take their content to other places?
How can they take control of the project and make it their own?
How will the project make participants feel?
How useful was the experience?
How will we archive the project online after it is finished?
Development pitches should also include the following:
• Statement on collaboration agreements between TV/NM indies (if appropriate)
• Statement on proposed rights ownership
• Description of project team and the time they will be dedicating to the project
• Project Timeline
• Budget
• Other Partnerships/dependencies outside of Indie/C4
• Risks analysis
We are asking people to pitch in a way that is very different from existing TV pitches, and also slightly different from traditional software pitches. Here’s some guidelines for indies about how to pitch.
The initial pitch
Intial pitches should be 1/2 pages, leading on the story or issue that the project addresses, and submitted via the online commissioning system. We would suggest using the ‘NABC’ format, focusing on four key elements of the project:
Need – what is the audience need that your idea will address?
Approach – how will the project you propose address these needs?
Benefits – what are the benefits of your approach for the user/client?
Competition – what else is there in the market that addresses the same needs?
Detailed technology strategies are not as important in initial pitches as proving that the story/issue is relevant to our target audience, and that it addresses a real need.
Development pitches
If we decide to fund development work, we will ask indies to answer more specific questions about the platforms for delivery, and also to think about the lifecycle of the whole project – the Before/During/After. This will require more of a user-centric approach to describing the project. Example questions might include:
Before
Who are your target users?
Where are they spending their time?
What platforms/spaces are they using?
What is the competition for their attention?
What is the gap/need you’re targeting?
How are your users going to first hear about the project?
How are they going to tell their friends?
How can they register their commitment to the project?
During
What will we ask users to do?
How is this different from what they are already doing?
Who will they be doing this with?
How can they share the experience?
How will we encourage participation?
What will they need to take part?
How will we reward participation?
How will we users credit C4 as the brand behind the project?
After
How will the project end?
How can people record their experience?
How can they share it with others?
How can they take their content to other places?
How can they take control of the project and make it their own?
How will the project make participants feel?
How useful was the experience?
How will we archive the project online after it is finished?
Development pitches should also include the following:
• Statement on collaboration agreements between TV/NM indies (if appropriate)
• Statement on proposed rights ownership
• Description of project team and the time they will be dedicating to the project
• Project Timeline
• Budget
• Other Partnerships/dependencies outside of Indie/C4
• Risks analysis
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