‘How to be good’: media representations of parenting

Abstract

Expectations of parenting are highly prescribed and the media is an important channel for adults learning what this role entails. The pedagogical role of the media involves making judgements on what counts as valid and desirable parenting practices and suggest goals to be(come) the ‘good parent’—a construct which appears to take no account of social inequalities, cultural diversity and complex social contexts. Our study focuses on idealised parenting in media settings and highlights the preferences and subject positions parents are expected to take. This identity work involves parents understanding their practices as the problem and learning new practices as the potential solution, which they need to initiate. The role of parenting experts is to position parents as responsible adults with the ability to make desired changes happen. Parents who refuse to develop the preferred skills, risk appearing to be uninformed and ignorant. Located in this discourse parenting is a question of adult learning.

Keywords:

• adult learning
• governmentality
• media
• parenting
• subject positioning