Abstract:

New media offering new opportunities to the market industry as a media for children has boosted the appetite of commercial companies that are expecting profit. Through the new media, a close relationship has been developed between the industrial market and children and young people in a way never seen before. Websites that claim to have been prepared for children and young people have begun to transform into media where firms advertise, and ensure brand recognition and brand familiarity. Thus, children are introduced to commercial culture from a young age and are directed to acquire new consumption practices. In this study, the videos, news titles, and images containing “advertising and publicity” elements in the website content of ‘Tipeez.com’, a popular children’s website, were analyzed with a critical perspective, using both content and discourse analysis method, in order to demonstrate the connection between the children’s websites and the commercial culture. In the study, the texts within the news, advertisement and game titles in the website were analyzed through ‘consumption culture’, ‘social gender’ and ‘Disneyfication’ themes. As a result of the study, the website ‘Tipeez.com’, which claims to be a place for children, has been observed to apply advertising strategies hidden in many areas, such as games, news and forums where children can participate interactively, along with direct marketing strategies such as publishing the logos and advertising banners of the companies. It has also been found that Disney characters have been promoted in the game contents and news headlines designed according to social gender in ‘Tipeez.com’, and the discourse of consumption has been reproduced.

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