Who To Target?

Our target publication is the SBS. The Egyptian protests – a social media revolution – fits the mould of a type of story that SBS would cover. Whether a television documentary or online feature; the story is solid. However, for the purpose of this assignment, we propose an investigative web feature.

SBS’s digital media unit allowed for the expansion of SBS news programs and documentaries online, which currently comprises of more than 150 individual websites. In 1997, SBS Online had seven websites and each month recorded an average of 35,000 page impressions (SBS). In today’s 150 websites, there is a monthly average of about 6 million page impressions (SBS). This growth online has been particularly rapid within the past five years.

The SBS “documentary” section (hyperlink from SBS homepage)

http://www.sbs.com.au/documentary/

With all this in mind, our web feature will serve as an extension of the SBS network, specifically from the “documentary” section of SBS. Our focus on social media as a powerful democratic tool in the Egyptian context, will be another website adding to the list which currently stands at approx 150. Noting the rise of online participation, particularly within the last five years, our web feature targeted for SBS users will seek to enhance their knowledge on the Tahrir Square Protest and give the story a new meaning. This in-depth focus on the use of social media as means for communication amongst citizens to collectively overthrow a corrupt government will give users a new side of the story to consider.

Furthermore, SBS websites act as an extension from aired television programs by the station. Research indicates that a total of 94% of website users watch the corresponding SBS television program. Interestingly, only a small percentage of users (5%) speak languages other than English. Whilst the SBS network does cater for various audience ethnicities, specifically Italian, Mandarin, Dutch, Croatian, Syrian, Arabic, Vietnamese, Greek and Cantonese, our web feature will simply focus on the international language of English. SBS websites aim to “both initiate and reinforce viewer/listener attachment to particular SBS programs and to the SBS brand” (SBS). Recent data reveals that SBS television’s largest demographic is people over the age of 40 (49%), however it is interesting to reveal that 74% of the users of the SBS websites are in fact under 40 years old. Clearly younger audience members are engaging in the online world, as according to Flew (2008) they represent “digital natives”. However, one cannot simply omit the older audience members when creating a web feature, who’s to say that are not or will not become technologically savvy?

References

http://media.sbs.com.au/sbscorporate/documents/240104_online.pdf