Technology+Changes+Disney's+Programming+Template+by+John+Infante

The Disney Channel tends to follow their own successful formula for creating plots and storylines for their shows. By slightly altering different aspects of this formula, Disney recycles old plots and themes into new shows creating the illusion of "fresh" material. After decades of sitcoms, one can hardly say that theres anything new on TV; in fact, even episodes of the technology savvy Nickelodeon program iCarly, is guilty of recycling old Disney plots despite its emphasis on media technology, a feature that sets it apart from Disney programs. However, despite the technology driven plots of iCarly, problems and themes of the show still mirror Disney's equation. Long running Disney programs like Lizzie Maguire, Even Stevens, and Hannah Montana have already covered the stories and issues in iCarly, so for my research project I would like to see how iCarly's emphasis of technology and media transforms/changes recycled show themes.

I will use observation and content analysis as my research method: 1.First I will search for various children's programs whose plots are essencially the same. 2.I will find and analyze an episode of iCarly whose plot line is similar to that of collection of shows i find. 3.Recording the details of the spacific plots and examining how they differ i want to see if iCarly's incorporation of technology changes the recycled message and explain how and why. 4. i will also analyse the scripts of these similar-plotted shows to find spacific differences in themes

I expect to find that plots including themes like conflict resolution, popularity, and interpersonal communication in iCarly will be vastly different past Disney programming that incorporates the plot themes because of the application of technology.

Children's over exposure to technology is rumored to have a number of negative effects on them, I feel it would be worth while to see if iCarly, a show that promotes the use of technology inadvertedly displays characteristics of the "negative effects" of technology.


 * Great topic here - I think it might be hard to track down alot of these different episodes, so perhaps you can get some real mileage of a detailed close analysis of two episodes, where you use comparison-contrast to illustrate the formulaic elements with some precision. You have the green light! **