(Person) Percentage - Sabanci University Research Database

The Asian Media & Mass Communication Conference 2010 Osaka, Japan
Prior to Bluebird AR's delivery, and in keeping with the ABC's Editorial Policies, all content
submitted to ABC areas by audiences needed to be viewed and moderated. Moderation ensures
that all audience contributions are appropriate to the broader ABC demographic and is
maintained by filtering out any contributions deemed to be extreme or inappropriate. This
standard ABC procedure took on new dimensions when applied to the multiple interfaces of an
Alternate Reality narrative. This hastened the implementation of new procedure allowing the
corporation to to deal with large moderation loads, the idiosyncrasies unique to both the
Bluebird AR narrative and more generally to the Alternate Reality genre. Specifically, a practice
known as “Reactive Moderation” whose introduction had been contemplated for some time by
editorial staff, was introduced. This meant that rather than ABC staff overseeing and approving
all posts, during busy times, staff would only react to the audience flagging content as
inappropriate. In this respect, the audience themselves take on the responsibility of policing the
spaces in which they interact, as occurs with many social networking sites.
Likewise, BluebirdAR aimed to employ a raft of such sites including as Youtube, Flickr
Facebook and Current TV, but the question soon surfaced: should specifically ABC moderation
policies also apply in these spaces? Officially, the ABC presumes that responsibility for
moderation on third party sites lies with the third party site itself. However, in some
circumstances it is recognised that the ABC may need to intervene and manage content that is
particularly derogatory or offensive. Yet the case of Bluebird AR was unique in that the ABC
material it presented on these spaces, was not labeled as ABC material. It was ultimately decided
that moderators should take a flexible approach to when and how to intervene with the content
on social networking sites. Each case should be sensitive to the expectations, customs and
conventions of existing communities within third party sites, as well as to the ABC’s need to
maintain its own reputation as an innovator with integrity.
As ABC moderators would oversee the comments and actions of players, they were also in a
position to observe players perceptions regarding the narratives fictionality, and would be able to
police levels of immersion. Should it appear that players were panicking, fearing the the story
was real, moderators could direct said audience members to spaces where the story's fictionality
was revealed, but only if deemed absolutely necessary. Participation in this game both assumed
and encouraged a moderate level of ontological and Internet literacy on the part of audience.
That is to say the audience was granted as possessing the critical ability to either quickly
recognise the story’s fiction, or, if not, to question and investigate the story’s truth for
themselves. To blatantly point out the fiction would greatly diminish the narrative’s effect,
thereby reducing the opportunity of audiences to both inform and immerse themselves.
Delivery
With these production issues resolved and with the huge amount of narrative content including
character videos, faux-documentaries, puzzles, photos, clues, and other media created, the
producers and marketing team now worked towards BluebirdAR's delivery through promotion,
then launch and adaptation. And again new issues and opportunities arose.
Promotion
The ABC is not synonymous with advertising campaigns. Far from it. The Corporation has strict
regulations regarding the advertising and promotion of all content, products and services
including its own. As a result, and in order to maintain the trust placed in it from its audience,
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