Hollyoaks and Coronation Street target different demographic audiences through differences in their opening titles, shooting and editing styles, and themes. Hollyoaks uses bright colors, pop music, and experimental shots to engage younger viewers, while Coronation Street employs a calm string theme and focuses on iconic locations to appeal to older audiences. The soaps also cast younger, stylish actors for Hollyoaks and more mature characters for Coronation Street. Storylines in Hollyoaks center on adolescent issues like eating disorders and relationships, whereas Coronation Street covers more relatable adult topics such as family, jobs, and money problems.

1. OPENING TITLES:
Immediatelywe can identifythat these soaps
are aimed at two differingaudiencesdue to
the differencesintheiropeningtitles.
Hollyoaks headsfor a ‘introducingthe
characters’ style with bright,poppingcolours
and an accompanimentof fast-beat,pop-
music whichis clearly aimedat a young
demographicwith the purpose of making the
characters immediatelyidentifiable forthe
audience.Contrastingly,CoronationStreet
choosesto introduce the iconic locations
(such as the pub and streets) while
implementingthrowfocus,a sepiafilterand
the iconicslow, string theme-tune to
representthe soap as calm and fairly slow-
paced for the oldertarget audience.
SHOOTING AND EDITING:
Both soaps mostly followthe same genericand
expectedshottypes oftenseenin soaps,with
the main featuresbeingshot-reverse-shotdue
the soaps beingmassivelyconversation-based,
along with the majority of the shots being
close-ups/mediumclose-upsasthe
reactions/facial expressionsofthe characters
drivesthe episode forward.
However,whencomparing the soaps we can
see that Hollyoaksimplementsmuchmore
abstract/experimental shots that break the
genericexpectationsofhow soap operas are
usuallyshot. For example,thisspecific
episode see’sthe use of extreme highand
low anglesand a rotating camera. Thismakes
the soap more visuallyengagingas a way of
targeting a younger audience. Similarly,
Hollyoaks also breakstraditions by using non-diegeticmusicanddisplayingtext on screen
to representtext messages/phone calls.

2. CASTING
Obviouscasting choices have beenmade to
create a range of characters that the target
audience can identify.On the channel 4
website,the creators of hollyoaksstate that
the soap is shown‘through the eyesof our
primarily youngcast to reflectthe aspirations,
fears and preoccupationsof modern young
adults’,explainingwhy the cast of Hollyoaks
are mostly young,stylish and good-looking.
Contrastingly,Coronation Streetstates that
theirtarget audience ispredominantly
‘Female,Housewiveswithchildren’,explaining
why the majority of the characters in the soap
are more mature in age and behaviour
compared to Hollyoaks characters.
THEMES AND NARRATIVES:
As expected,narrativeswithinHollyoaks oftenrevolve around issuesfacedduring
adolescence andgrowing up as the majority of the cast are youngadults. This particular
episode containedthemesofeating disorders,bodyimage, familyviolence and
relationshipdisputes.Coronationstreetoffersissuesrevolvingaround family/grownups
that aren’t as dramatic and are more identifiable forthe target audience,suchas moving
house,moneyproblems and findinga job.