A soap opera is a drama typically performed as a serial on daytime television or radio.

Authors Avatar

Soap Opera Essay

A soap opera is a drama typically performed as a serial on daytime television or radio.  Soaps tend to be over dramatic and actors are often over emotional, to provoke a reaction from viewers.  Soap operas got their names because they used to advertise soaps during the breaks.  These programmes were very popular with 'housewives' though they now attract a much wider audience.  Soap operas have dramatically changed through the years, becoming more and more controversial, the story lines have changed and matured in some ways to fit different lifestyles, and the media.

The media has always been very influential on soap operas, because they show a clear picture of current events which affects 'real people', the kind of people they are trying to portray.  The expression 'real people' refers to the working class masses, the main viewers of soap operas.  Viewers often get 'hooked' on soap operas, as they have addictive, on going story lines.  Usually, people latch onto a character that has experienced similar problems to them and observes how they deal with them.  However, this is not always a good way to go about your problem solving, considering that soap operas are notorious for over dramatising situations, and giving most of their characters the worst fate possible.  

The media can also help soap operas increase their viewing audience, for example, the viewing figures for the 'Eastenders' story line, "Who Shot Phil Mitchell", was greatly influenced by newspaper speculation of the culprit.  It has been known to have been taken too far, for example well known booking offices were taking bets on who had shot Phil Mitchell.  People then wanted to tune in and see exactly who had committed the crime.  Story lines like this really capture viewers, because they enjoy the chance to be able to play detective.  The media also concentrate on the actors personal lives, and the more coverage the get, the more people tune in to see them.  

All soaps are aimed at different age brackets in the community.  Recently, soaps have been 'killing off' characters and making way for new ones.  The effect of this is that with the death of new characters, new viewers will be inherited from other places.  'Emmerdale Farm', now known as 'Emmerdale' came onto our screens in the early 1970's.  It is set in Yorkshire countryside, in a small village.  This soap mainly appeals to people from Northern England, or people with farms, as this soap concentrates on farm life, something that not everyone is familiar with.  This has affected its audience in the past, but 'Emmerdale' now seems to have changed its cast to fit with new social conventions. 'Emmerdale' has a mature cast, even though it does have young people in it.  

'Emmerdale' is on at 7 o'clock, Monday to Friday, it has had some story lines in it which we would call adult, but as time goes on more and more things are becoming more acceptable.  An example of their controversial story lines was a recent plot about two 16-year-old youths deciding they wanted to try to have a baby together.  This caused uproar in the media, as many parents were writing into the shows' makers, saying that this story was irresponsible, and that as many teenagers watch the show, they could start to think this type of behavior is acceptable.  

 

'Eastenders' is set round a square estate of houses in East London.  This soap appeals to mainly Southern people, although it does have a large following from all over the country, as it was voted Best Soap at the TV awards last year.  'Eastenders' is also aimed at a wide audience, as it has characters from every generation in its cast.  This is effective in boosting their ratings because it broadens their target audience, thus increasing the number of people who watch the show.  'Eastenders' is aimed at working class people. You can tell this from the setting.  There is a market in the setting and a pub, which are the focal points for all story lines that go on.  This does affect the type of audience they have, because only working class people can relate to the situations that people in the soap get into.  However, that is not saying that only working class people can watch it, as it was recently revealed in the media that 'Eastenders' was Prince Williams favourite soap!

Join now!

The setting of 'Emmerdale' as I mentioned before is in rural Yorkshire.  There is a public house there which, as in most soaps, is the centre of all main story lines.  They either finish or start here.  This is because, everyone who lives nearby come into the public house at the end of the day.  All of the major story lines start or end here, this is because the public house is the only place where the scriptwriters can get every character and their explosive personalities into one space.  This then creates tension, which is what the viewers tune ...

This is a preview of the whole essay