The document discusses reasons why people watch soap operas based on a study. It finds that people watch for uses and gratifications, parasocial interaction, and identification. It also discusses four areas that influence which soap someone chooses: social interaction, entertainment, integration into daily routine, and identification with characters. The document then shares results from a survey about soap opera viewers which asked about watching habits, favorite soaps and storylines, preferences for trailers, and desired elements in a new soap opera.

1. Audience Profile

2. Uses and Gratification- Why do people watch TV Soap Operas?
A study shows that audiences watch soaps for three main reasons; Uses and Gratifications (U&G), parasocial
interaction (PSI) and identification (ID). These are all reasons as to why an audience watches a particular soap and is
not solely based on content. The study shows that there are four different areas which could contribute to the decision
of which soap someone wants to watch, including:
Integration and Social Interaction
• gaining insight into circumstances of others;
social empathy
• identifying with others and gaining a sense
of belonging
• finding a basis for conversation and social
interaction
• having a substitute for real-life
companionship
• helping to carry out social roles
• enabling one to connect with family, friends
and society
Entertainment
• escaping, or being diverted, from
problems
• relaxing
• getting intrinsic cultural or aesthetic
enjoyment
• filling time
• emotional release
http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/Documents/short/usegrat.html

3. Uses and Gratification- Why do people watch TV
Soap Operas?
Richard Kilborn came up with many different reasons as to why people watch soaps:
Regular part of
domestic routine
and entertaining
reward for work
Used for social and
personal
interaction
Fulfilling
individuals needs,
a way of choosing
to be alone
Identification and
involvement with
characters
Critical game
involving previous
knowledge
Escapist fantasy
Focus of debate on
topical issue
http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/Documents/short/usegrat.html

4. Age: 16-25, due to the content e.g. teenage pregnancy, education etc.
This would only relate to younger people as they would be the ones
experiencing similar issues so could relate to the characters within the
soap easily. It could also act as guidance for them as the storyline could
help to advise them on what to do
Gender:
Female and male, the
issues involved in my soap
will apply to both genders,
and both gender characters
will be featured
Lifestyle:
General manual skilled
jobs, unemployed,
students in full time
education, first full
time job, first
relationships etc.
Likes/interests:
Socialising, humour,
that’s what the audience
are going to be doing so
they can relate, subjects
to do with relationships
etc.
Dislikes: snobby high class
jobs/people, religion, patriotic
people, the audience aren’t really
concerned with their country or
religion, they have a negative
view on adults in high class jobs
due to school etc.
Socio-economic group:
B,C1,C2,D,E, includes
people of a similar
group/lifestyle, the
characters featured in
my trailer will also have
similar jobs
Psychographic group:
Struggler- the audience are
comfortable with where they
are in lives and may not
aspire to be more
Mainstreamer- the soap
features mainstream issues,
and the genre is also
mainstream

5. I also carried out an online survey using surveymonkey.com which enabled me to collect some qualitative data to give
me more information about why people watch soaps and what they like a dislike. The survey will be based on the
audience preferences with soaps to let me know what they would like to see in our soap, but I will also carry out a
focus group to help me get to know my target audiences lifestyle and hobbies etc. to give me more of an insight into
what they like and dislike and their attitudes.
I asked the following questions on survey monkey and these are my results:
1. Do you watch soap operas? Why?
Why not?
The majority of people we asked said
that they do infact enjoy watching
soaps because they have lots of
free time and find them
entertaining.

6. 2. What is your favourite soap and why?
My result showed me that the most popular soap that my audience like is Eastenders,
due to the fact it is exciting and entertaining. Most people chose Eastenders, with one
choosing Hollyoaks and two saying that they did not have a favourite.
Eastenders
Hollyoaks
None

7. 3. What storylines interest you the most? Why? Examples.
The surveymonkey answers showed me that my audience enjoy drama storylines such
as narrative involving drugs and pregnancy using the feature of dramatic irony. They also
like humorous storylines as well as love stories, but dramatic storylines appear to be the
most popular.

8. 4. How often do you watch soaps?
Most of the people I asked said that they watch soaps every other day. 22.27% of the
people I asked said that they don’t watch soaps very often compared to the 33.33% of
people who said they watched it everyday.

9. 5. What do you want to see in a trailer?
My results showed me that most of the audience want to see drama included in my
trailer, as well as cliff-hangers and fast paced action.

10. 6. Do you like fast paced, action packed trailers or slow, suspense building trailers?
The majority of the audience said that they would prefer to see fast paced action trailers
instead of slow, suspense building trailers. I can use these results when making my trailer
as I understand what most of my audience want to see, which will help me appeal to the
widest audience possible.

11. 7. What do you dislike about trailers?
My survey answers showed me that most of the audience dislike boring trailers that are
too slow or repeat the same things.

12. 8. What would you like to see in a new soap?
The results from this question gave me a range of answers. The audience replied saying
that they would like to see a balance between good and bad storylines, narrative relating
to sexuality and soaps that are aimed at younger people. Some also said that they would
prefer more suspicious murders, scary scenes and more drama.

13. 9. When would be the best time of day and day of the week to broadcast our soap?
Most of the audience said that they think it would be a good idea to show our soap
between 7 and 9 because it is in the evening and they will be at home.

14. 10. Do you like soaps that concentrate on negative drama or resolution?
Six of the audience members said that they would want to see negative drama instead of
resolution. One person said they would like to see some resolution and another person
said that they would like to see both combined, or a negative drama with a happy ending.
I think combining both of these themes would help to appeal to a wider audience, and
help us to cover different types of storylines such as pregnancy, death, relationships etc.
Audience
Negative
Resolution
Both
Not Sure