Imellem reklame og indhold: En analyse af 5-6 årige børns forståelse af branded content på tablets

Abstract

This Thesis revolves around how 5-6-year-old children and their parents perceive branded content. Firstly, the focus is the role parents play in how children use tablet-media. Secondly the thesis is focused on what kinds of online content that can be characterized as commercial as well as how the families perceive and attempt to tackle online commercials. In cases where the child does not understand it as a commercial, the thesis seeks to explore how children might alternately perceive the content. Thirdly the thesis seeks to understand how small children’s use of tablet technology is related to their knowledge and perception of brands. In other words, whether children are able to transfer virtual characters and apps into physical play - and to what extend children’s consumer habits are influenced by these brands and characters. It is important to establish that the goal of this thesis is not to produce generalizable knowledge but rather to gain a deeper and more nuanced understanding of children and parents perceptions and actions in regards to branded content on tablets. Thus the primary empirical focus here is on small stories with a large amount of detail collected through interviews with 3 families. In addition to a more regular questions-and-answers approach, respondents were also introduced to different types of videos and online content to stimulate dialogue in the sessions. The thesis concludes that both parents and their children play a role in the children’s use of content. Thus rules and practices for children’s use of tables are not only something that parents dictate and children follow. Rather the children’s use of tablet-technology emerges as something dynamic that is negotiated and re-negotiated. Thus even small children play a (not always opaque) role in the decision making process of tablet usage. In regards to the perception of this content, my data shows that children do not view apps, pop-op commercials and YouTube videos as commercials. Furthermore, the thesis shows that branded content blurs and merges the boundaries between commercial branding and actual content leading commercial messaging to “slip through the cracks”. This manifested itself through ambivalent inconsistencies in rules that where otherwise clear-cut, like restricting commercials entirely but allowing YouTube videos.