Defining Soap Opera

1. SOAP OPERA TRAILER
RESEARCH
A2 Production

2. What is a Soap
Opera Trailer?
A soap opera trailer is a
an advertisement for a
new TV show. It should
quickly summarize the
characters personalities
so that the audience can
recognise the character
conventions.
According to
https://en.wikipedia.org
/wiki/Teaser_campaig
n, “A teaser trailer for
an upcoming film,
television program, video
game or similar, is
usually released long in
advance of the product,
so as to "tease" the
audience”.
What is a Soap Opera?
A soap opera is a type of drama,
usually revolving around the same
community of characters. This
enables the audience to watch each
character develop, resulting in them
forming an attachment.
According to Oxford Dictionaries,
“soap opera is a television or radio
drama serial dealing typically with
daily events in the lives of the same
group of characters”

3. Theories
There are many
theories that relate to
audiences and media
texts. They revolve
around what each text
should do to an attract
an audience, and why
the audiences enjoy
them.
Why do Audiences Enjoy Soap
Operas?
Audiences enjoy soap operas as they gain
pleasure from features of the media text, for
example, the characters of a soap opera provide
a pleasure for the audience as they often form a
relationship; the audience watch as the
character develops and often finds their
personality, life events and even costumes
relatable. This makes the audience feel attached
as its as if they know them personally.
Soap operas also provide an entertainment
value and provide escapism for the audience.
The audience escape into the characters
environments, finding more excitement and
drama. They enjoy this because its different to
their everyday lives.

4. Repetition and Difference – Steven Neale
Neale has a theory that states a media text must include features of
repetition to make the genre recognisable, as well as difference to
keep the product unique, and therefore interesting to the audience.
For example, this can be applied to characters within the soap, as
they must be conventional (repeating stereotypes) as the audience
find pleasure in recognising their character types and personalities.
However, to keep the idea new and fresh, Neale’s theory states that
characters should have something unique about them. This will
prevent them from becoming predictable, resulting in the media
text being more appealing to the audience as it has something
unique to offer.
This does not only apply to the use of character within a media text;
Neale believed that convention should be conformed to, and
challenged within a genre to provide audiences with something
fresh and original.

5. S I M I L A R M E D I A T E X T S
RESEARCHING SOAP
OPERAS
RESEARCH

6. EastEnders
EastEnders is a soap opera
that has a community of
characters. A multi-strand
narrative allows the
audience to relate to each
individual character and
what is going Each
character follows a
convention, for example,
Dot Branning also follows a
stereotype because she is
an elderly woman who is
very religious. Cat also fits
a stereotype as
promiscuous. This can be
seen in her costume
because she wears
provocative clothing, such
as short skirts and leopard
print.
Easteneders is shown on
BBC 1, at either 7:30pm or
8:00pm. This shows a
family target audience.

7. EastEnders
EastEnders is formatted in a continuing series
that is on multiple times a week. It is shown on
BBC 1 at times varying from 7:30 and 8:00 pm,
shown every weekday excluding Wednesdays.
This attracts a mass audience as its at a time when
families sit down to watch evening TV.
EastEnders creates verisimilitude by including
popular dates and traditions, such as Christmas
specials, New Years and Easter. This creates
realism as what’s happening in the episode is
often close to the audiences real life.

8. Coronation
Street
This soap opera shows a
community of characters
living in the same town.
It has a multi-strand
narrative, allowing the
audience to see character
development.
Current events/themes
within Coronation Street
include drug abuse, child
care and adultery. For the
audience, these may be
things that are easy to
relate to.
Coronation is shown on
ITV 1 on 7:30/8:30pm,
Monday, Wednesday and
Fridays. This suggests
that the programme
targets a mass audience

9. Coronation Street
Coronation Street is formatted in a
continuing series aired several days a week,
on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Similarly to the other programmes I have
researched, 'special' episodes are aired
during traditional dates or events. For
example, there will usually be Christmas
specials and unique episode dedicated to
celebrating the anniversary of the channels.
This is unique and keeps the audience
engaged.

10. Conventions
Soaps tend to target a
mass audience
Soap operas are shown at an earlier
time to target a mass audience.
They are typically broadcast pre-
watershed for a family audience.
Soap opera tends to
be shown several
times a week and has
a shorter duration of
30 minutes.
Soap has a community/village.
This is the same for the location;
soaps tend to be set in a
town/village, and this is reflected
in the name of the media text as
it is conventionally named after
the location.
Soaps create
verisimilitude to achieve
realism
Soaps have many
characters, and show
a range of locations.
Multi-strand
narrative