Key+Findings+of+Parenting+Research

 One issue that I ran into was the fact that the subjects infused most of their answers about adult representation with their own pre-existing feelings about the show. I could and should have seen that being a potential problem before we even co-viewed clips. I began the iCarly questioning with an exercise we’ve utilized as a class all semester: asking the subjects to describe as if they were talking to someone who had never seen the show before. It was apparent that the interview subjects had preconceived ideas about the show, and right off the bat, I was able to see the opinions the mothers had regarding iCarly.

Two of my subjects, Colette and Kimmy, added adults into their explanation of the show; Colette went so far as to criticize this aspect of the show.

**Colette:** “It’s a show about two young girls, one with older brother, and boy that films show. How old are they: high school? No matter, the way they act for their age is inappropriate, most of the things they talk about are inappropriate, there’s no family structure. Sam especially has a miserable attitude, you never see any parenting.”

 **Kimmy:** “It’s about a girl that lives with her brother because… I don’t even know what happened to the mother. But the father is stationed in Germany for the military. So it’s these little girls and her friends who have an internet show that they do every day that deals with different ideas they comes up with every day.”

My last interview subject, Kym, went with a more standard summary and answer.

**Kym:** “It’s a creative comedy with young teenagers. They do a webshow which they created on their own which they film live and acts as its own creative comedy.”

After this initial exercise, I had a good idea that both Colette and Kimmy would be in line with my thesis, but I couldn’t tell where Kym’s thoughts were. My only prediction was that with her strong religious background, she would have a few obvious qualms with the show’s structure with regard to family and adults. What I found, however, shocked me.

The chart below shows only some of the highlights from the conversations I held with my interview subjects, in hopes to demonstrate some of the patterns I encountered.



While there was a general consensus between Colette and Kimmy that the show provides no positive images of adults or children for that matter, Kym painted a picture of iCarly in a very positive light. She found that the dynamics between the adults and the children made the show a perfect fit for even her younger children.



What I found to be most intriguing about my interviews parents was the fact that no one took into consideration the clips we viewed together, including but not limited to a promo for an episode involving Sam's mom:

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