Making, evaluating and enjoying cartoons. Research into the quality of cartoon production involving children, parents, cartoon producers and media experts

The main purpose of this work is to contribute to defining a research approach that could favour dialogue and cooperation among the principal actors in the media communication pact, in order to make cartoons high quality products, and more and more suited for children’s development. In particular, the research investigates the criteria for cartoons’ production and evaluation used by four categories of subjects: cartoon makers and media experts, with regards to the production criteria, children of 5/6 and 10/11 years and their parents, with regard to the evaluation criteria. Moreover, the research looks into the conceptions held by the same subjects in evaluating a cartoon’s quality. For these purposes a semi-structured interview was defined with slight differences in question formulations, depending on the subjects involved, and was administered to 60 subjects, 10 for each of the above-mentioned categories. The results show convergences but also differences among the four categories of subjects, revealing a complex conceptual framework that offers many suggestions to develop further this line of research.