Website analysis- part 3

Appeal

Its difficult to say who the disney channels site appeals to the most, there is such a variety of things to do on it, that it appeals to quite a braod range of children. There are games such as the 'finding Nemo game' and 'the disney princess game'. These obviously appeal to children who are already holding a strong interest in disney characters, movies and programmes. Prior knowledge is essential here, many children would choose to play on games that appeal to them the most. There is a good range of games that suit both males and females. This shows that the creators have really thought about their audience.

For me as kid, I would stay up late (8pm!) playing on the Disney site and i can safely say from experience that I would rather play on the disney princess game than the boys car games.
That is what is so good about this website, it has an appeal that ranges a great variety of people of different ages.

Culture

I think that within todays society, it is important to make kids find being interactive online fun. Within the postmodern world, young children are growing up a lot faster than what they used to, with them experimenting with make up and worrying about their appearance a lot more. The site and others similar to the Disney one are all trying to keep kids young and remember that they are all young once in their lives, so make the most of it! I think the site reminds kids that they are allowed to be young and do things that young children do.

The channel itself have started bringing programmes such as 'That's So Raven' and 'Hannah Montana' onto it. These are different from the cartoons that you expect to see on the channel, such as 'The Mickey Mouse club' and 'Recess'. The idea of innocence has almost been lost after the new programmes have come in. With the idea that girls want to look and be like characters, means that they are idolising characters older, and therefore, wanting to grow up faster.

Does anyone else agree? That the characters are making children want to grow up faster. 'Thats so Raven' is portrayed as a young teenager and is always seen doing her make up and kissing boys. Am i just being an older person and critically analysing the postmodern world? or should young girls especially, be acting their age a little more and enojoy being young?

What you all think??