this is my A2 media studies target audience of soap operas analysis.

1. Soap Opera Genre –
Target Audience
Name: Adam Fox
Candidate Number: Center Name: St. Andrew’s
Catholic School
Center Number: 64135
OCR Media Studies – A2 Level
Unit G324: Advanced Portfolio

2. Stereotypical Target Audience
Hartley’s 7 Subjectivities - The target audience is stereotypically likely to be females because of the
different personalities of the characters. This will stereotypically appeal more to women because they
are more sympathetic towards peoples dilemmas and the genre does tend to focus on “the home,
domestic tribulations and strong women, and as such, it has been long since said to appeal to the
female audience” (Rebeca Feasey – 2007).
This is proven in the screenshot (right), which was taken
from EastEnders, which depicts the
woman cradling the girl after she breaks down.
https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=AdHEgNIoKmM
Socio-Economic Needs – The stereotypical
viewer of a soap is likely to be in the C2-E
categories as they demand more social realism that they can affiliate to. This is evidenced by the
broadcasting and scheduling times of popular soap opras. For example ‘EastEnders’ is on at the prime
time slot of 19:30, likewise ‘Emmerdale’ is on at 20:00 and ‘Hollyoaks’ is scheduled slightly earlier at
18:30. This connotes that the genre is aimed at a younger audience as the content is suitable for
young people. These scheduling slots are with in the prime time in the TV schedules as people will be
watching TV after work. This implies that soap opras are aimed at a mass audiences as the timing
ensures maximum number of viewers. These audiences are unlikely to watch highly complex political
dramas as they have no relation to the situations displayed, for example ‘House of Cards’.

3. Stereotypical Target Audience
Psychographics - The stereotypical audience of soap operas are ‘mainstreamers’ as they are likely
to follow the conventional social trends this is the case because much of the content of soap
operas reflects to this lifestyle, for example the characters all wear casual clothing and there is
little brand and product placement. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70vVmZ7qDYw This
connotes that materialism is not as important to the audience as the themes & issues and
characters in the narrative. This also reflects the ‘personal relationship’ factor that is used by Katz
to explain our attachment to a television series.
Katz’ Uses & Gratifications theory - Using Katz’ theories the stereotypical audience is use the
genre as ‘Excitation transfer’ which that people feel worried about bad things happen to the
characters that hey perceive as ‘good’ and good thin happening to ‘bad’ people.
Another application of the theory comes from Richard Kilborn (1992) who argues that soap
operas are used for as “a launch pad for social and personal interaction”. However, he also notes
that is used to endure and inforce loneliness on the person. This means that soaps make the
home life of some people more bearable as it gives them a secure event in their life outside of
work, which is proven by the regular running times. Also, the plot in soap operas have a central
core that makes people want to watch the entire series, for example the battle between Robert
and Cain in Emmerdale: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC5KYf8kgaQ