- What is a soap opera?
- Soaps compared with other genres
- Subject-matter and style
- The openness of soaps
- Realism
- Stereotypes
- Coronation Street
- Brookside
- Eastenders
- Dallas and Dynasty
- Neighbours
- UK Soap Audience
- Women as viewers
- References
- Key Links
- Realism: The world has an objective existence which is independent of our use of any means of representation. An attempt to represent the world in words or images may 'distort reality', but at its best can 'mirror reality'.
- Relativism: We unavoidably contribute to 'the construction of reality' - of the world - in our use of words and images. We do this within cultural frameworks (Stanley Fish refers to 'interpretive communities'), so realities are not entirely personal and unconstrained.
- Idealism: 'Reality' (or 'the world') is purely subjective and is constructed by human interpretation, having no independent objective existence.
- Allen, Robert C. (1992): Channels of Discourse, Reassembled (2nd edn.). London: Routledge
- Ang, Ien (1985): Watching Dallas: Soap Opera and the Melodramatic Imagination. London: Methuen
- Buckingham, David (1987): Public Secrets: Eastenders and its Audience. London: British Film Institute
- Curran, James & Michael Gurevitch (eds.) (1991): Mass Media and Society. London: Edward Arnold
- Dyer, Richard (ed.) (1981): Coronation Street. London: British Film Institute
- Geraghty, Christine (1991): Women and Soap Opera: A Study of Prime-Time Soaps. Cambridge: Polity Press
- Goodwin, Andrew & Garry Whannel (eds.) (1990): Understanding Television. London: Routledge
- Hart, Andrew (1991): Understanding the Media. London: Routledge
- Hobson, Dorothy (1982): Crossroads - The Drama of a Soap. London: Methuen
- Livingstone, Sonia M (1990): Making Sense of Television. Oxford: Pergamon
- Livingstone, Sonia M (1991): 'Audience Reception; The Role of the Viewer in Retelling Romantic Drama' in Curran & Gurevitch (eds.), op.cit.
- Modleski, Tania (1982): Loving with a Vengeance: Mass-Produced Fantasies for Women. Hamden, CT: Archon
- Morley, David (1992): Television Audiences and Cultural Studies. London: Routledge
- Seiter, Ellen, Hans Borchers, Gabriele Kreutzner & Eva-Maria
- Warth (eds.) (1989): Remote Control: Television, Audiences and Cultural Power. London: Routledge
The TV Soap Opera Genre and its Viewers
Daniel Chandler
The soap opera genre originated in American radio serials of the
1930s, and owes the name to the sponsorship of some of these programmes
by major soap powder companies. So, like many television genres
(e.g. news and quiz shows), the soap opera is a genre originally
drawn from radio rather than film.
Television soap operas are long-running serials concerned
with everyday life. The serial is not to be confused with the
series, in which the main characters and format remain
the same from programme to programme but each episode is a self-contained
plot. In a serial at least one storyline is carried over from
one episode to the next. A series is advertised as having a specific
number of episodes, but serials are potentially endless.
Successful soaps may continue for many years: so new viewers have
to be able to join in at any stage in the serial. In serials,
the passage of time also appears to reflect 'real time' for the
viewers: in long-running soaps the characters age as the viewers
do. Christine Geraghty (1991, p. 11) notes that 'the longer they
run the more impossible it seems to imagine them ending.' There
are sometimes allusions to major topical events in the world outside
the programmes.
One related genre is the melodrama, with which it shares
such features as moral polarization, strong emotions, female orientation,
unlikely coincidences, and excess. Another related genre is the
literary romance, with which it shares features such as
simplified characters, female orientation and episodic narrative.
However, soaps do not share with these forms the happy ending
or the idealized characters. British soaps are distinctively different
from these related genres in their debt to a social realist tradition
(e.g. 'kitchen sink' dramas) and an emphasis on contemporary
social problems.
Some media theorists distinguish between styles of TV programmes
which are broadly 'masculine' or 'feminine'. Those seen as typically
masculine include action/adventure programmes and Westerns; those
seen as more 'feminine' include soaps and sitcoms. Action-adventures
define men in relation to power, authority, aggression and technology.
Soap operas define women in relation to a concern with the family.
The relative 'openness' of soaps in comparison with other genres
will be discussed shortly.
Recurrent events in soap opera include courtships, marriages,
divorces, deaths and disappearances. Gossip is a key feature in
soaps (usually absent from other genres): in part it acts as a
commentary on the action. Geraghty notes that 'more frequently
than other TV genres, soaps feature women characters normally
excluded by their age, appearance or status' (1991, p. 17).
Broadcast serials have the advantage of a regular time-slot (often
more than once a week), but even if some viewers miss it they
can easily catch up with events. Any key information which might
have been missed is worked into the plot when necessary. Nevertheless
knowledge of previous events can usefully be brought to bear by
habitual viewers, and doing so is part of the pleasure of viewing
for them. Viewers are also in an omniscient position, knowing
more than any character does. The form is unique in offering viewers
the chance to engage in informed speculation about possible turn
of events.
Unlike a play or a series there is always a wide range of characters
in a soap opera (which means that no single character is indispensible).
The large cast and the possibility of casual viewers necessitates
rapid characterization and the use of recognizable 'types'. British
and Australian soaps which are not in 'prime-time' slots typically
operate on a small budget.
Soaps are frequently derided by some critics for being full of
clichés and stereotypes, for having shoddy sets, for being
badly acted, trivial, predictable and so on. Soap viewers (often
assumed to be only women, and in particular working-class housewives)
are characterized unfairly as naive escapists. Given the great
popularity of the genre, such criticisms can be seen as culturally
elitist. Robert Allen (1992, p. 112) argues that to emphasize
what happens when in soaps (in semiotic terms the
syntagmatic dimension) is to underestimate the equal importance
of who relates this to whom (the paradigmatic
dimension). Certainly relationships are more important
than plot.
Some feminist theorists have argued that soap operas spring from
a feminine aesthetic, in contrast to most prime-time TV. Soaps
are unlike traditional dramas (e.g. sit-coms) which have a beginning,
a middle and an end: soaps have no beginning or end, no structural
closure. They do not build up towards an ending or closure of
meaning. Viewers can join a soap at any point. There is no single
narrative line: several stories are woven together over a number
of episodes. In this sense the plots of soaps are not linear.
The structure of soaps is complex and there is no final word on
any issue. A soap involves multiple perspectives and no consensus:
ambivalence and contradiction is characteristic of the genre.
There is no single 'hero' (unlike adventures, where the preferred
reading involves identification with this character), and the
wide range of characters in soaps offers viewers a great deal
of choice regarding those with which they might identify. All
this leaves soaps particularly open to individual interpretations
(more than television documentaries, suggests David Buckingham
1987, p. 36).
Tania Modleski (1982) argues that the structural openness of soaps
is an essentially 'feminine' narrative form. She argues that pleasure
in narrative focuses on closure, whilst soaps delay resolution
and make anticipation an end in itself. She also argues that masculine
narratives 'inscribe' in the text an implied male reader who becomes
increasingly omnipotent whilst the soap has 'the ideal mother'
as inscribed reader. Narrative interests are diffused among many
characters and her power to resolve their problems is limited.
The reader is the mother as sympathetic listener to all sides.
Easthope argues that the masculine ego favours forms which are
self-contained, and which have a sense of closure. 'Masculine'
narrative form favours action over dialogue and avoids indeterminacy
to arrive at closure/resolution. It is linear and goal-oriented.
Soaps make consequences more important than actions, involve many
complications, and avoid closure. Dialogue in masculine narratives
is driven by plot which it explains, clarifies and simplifies.
In soaps dialogue blurs and delays. There is no single hero in
soaps, no privileged moral perspective, multiple narrative lines
(non-linear plot) and few certainties. Viewers tend to feel involved
interpreting events from the perspective of characters similar
to themselves or to those they know.
Not much seems to 'happen' in many soaps (by comparison with,
say, an action series or an adventure serial) because there is
little rapid action. In soaps such as Coronation Street
and Brookside what matters is the effect of events on the
characters, This is revealed through characters talking to each
other. Charlotte Brunsdon argues that the question guiding a soap
story is not 'What will happen next?' but 'What kind of person
is this?' (in Geraghty 1991, p. 46). Such a form invites viewers
to offer their own comments.
Viewers differ in the extent to which they judge soaps as 'reflections
of reality'. Whilst American soaps such as Dallas and Dynasty
are seen (at least by British viewers) as largely in the realms
of fantasy, British soaps are more often framed by viewers in
terms of 'realism'. However, it is misleading to regard even 'realist
soaps' as simply 'representing real life'. The representation
of 'reality' is not unproblematic: television is not a 'window'
on an objective and unmediated world. British soap operas are
often described as 'realistic', but what this means varies. There
are several philosophical positions underlying people's assumptions
about the nature of 'reality':
'Common-sense' theories tend to be 'realist' theories in this
philosophical sense. Philosophical realism is involved
when viewers consider soaps in terms of the extent to which they
offer a 'distorted image of reality' of 'the outside world' (Ang
calls this empiricist realism on the part of viewers).
From the perspective of the programme makers, documentary realism
(Colin MacCabe calls this classic realism in the case of
the novel) involves foregrounding the story and backgrounding
the use of the conventions of the medium (e.g. using 'invisible
editing'). This 'transparency' of style encourages viewers to
regard the programme as a 'window' on an apparently unmediated
world rather than to notice its constructedness. Realism in drama
is no less a set of conventions than any other style, and it serves
to mask whose realities are being presented. 'Transparency' is
associated with a close sense of involvement by the viewers. It
is found in most soaps, although in American soaps such as Dallas
and Dynasty lapses into implausibility may tend to distance
the viewer.
British soaps also employ the transparency of classic/ documentary
realism, but owe a great deal to the social realist tradition
(associated with late 50s British films and kitchen-sink dramas).
Social realism emphasizes 'relevance' - a sympathetic portrayal
of everyday social problems recognizable to the working class
(see Jordan, in Dyer 1981, p. 28). Plausibility and credibility
is also valued more than in American prime-time soaps. Geraghty
suggests that 'British soaps, because of their greater dependence
on realism, are less daring [than US soaps] in displaying their
own fictionality' (1991, p. 20).
John Fiske (in Seiter et al. 1989, p. 68) notes that minimal
post-production work on 'realist' soaps (leaving in 'dead' bits)
may be cost-cutting, but it also suggests more 'realism' than
in heavily edited programmes, suggesting the 'nowness' of the
events on screen. Published stories about the characters in soaps
and the actors who play them link the world of the soap with the
outside world, but they also allow viewers to treat the soap as
a kind of game.
Ien Ang (1985) argues that watching soaps involves a kind of
psychological realism for the viewer: an emotional realism
which exists at the connotative rather than denotative (content)
level. This offers less concrete, more 'symbolic representations
of more general living experiences' which viewers find recognizably
'true to life' (even if at the denotative level the treatment
seems 'unrealistic'). In such a case, 'what is recognized as real
is not knowledge of the world, but a subjective experience of
the world: a "structure of feeling"' (Ang 1985, p. 45).
For many viewers of Dallas this was a tragic structure
of feeling: evoking the idea that happiness is precarious.
I would argue that especially with long-running soaps (which may
become more 'real' to their fans over time) what we could call
dramatic realism is another factor. Competence in judging
this is not confined to professional critics. Viewers familiar
with the characters and conventions of a particular soap may often
judge the programme largely in its own terms (or perhaps in terms
of the genre) rather than with reference to some external 'reality'.
For instance, is a character's current behaviour consistent with
what we have learnt over time about that character? The soap may
be accepted to some extent as a world in its own right, in which
slightly different rules may sometimes apply. This is of course
the basis for the 'willing suspension of disbelief' on which drama
depends.
Producers sometimes remark that realistic drama offers a slice
of life with the duller bits cut out, and that long-running soaps
are even more realistic than other forms because less has to be
excluded. However, dramatists do more than produce shortened versions
of 'the film of life': the construction of reality is far more
complex than this, and whose life is it anyway?
Jordan (in Dyer 1981) identifies several broad types used extensively
in Coronation Street: Grandmother figures; marriageable
characters (mature, sexy, women; spinsterly types; young women;
mature, sexy, men; fearful, withdrawn men; conventional young
men); married couples; rogues (including 'ne'er-do-wells' and
confidence tricksters). Buckingham refers also refers to the use
of the stereotypes of 'the gossip', 'the bastard' and 'the tart'.
Anthony Easthope adds 'the good girl', and Peter Buckman cites
'the decent husband', 'the good woman', 'the villain' and 'the
bitch' (in Geraghty 1991, p. 132). Geraghty herself adds 'the
career woman' (ibid., p. 135ff).
Coronation Street is a Granada production which is broadcast
nationally in the UK on ITV. First shown in 1960, it is the longest-running
British TV soap opera. It is watched by about one-third of the
British population, by rather more women than men, by older people,
and especially by people from lower socio-economic groups (Livingstone
1990, p. 55). It offers a nostalgic perspective on northern industrial
working-class life as group-centred, matriarchal, commonsensical
and blunt but also warm-hearted.
It includes strong and positive middle-aged females who are the
first to spring to mind when viewers are asked to recall the characters.
It deals with personal events. Work away from the home is seldom
shown. Political and social explanations for events are largely
supplanted by personal explanations based on the innate psychological
factors of individuals or (occasionally) on luck (Jordan, in Dyer
1981). People meet in shops and the pub to comment on events.
Life seems to revolve around finding a partner. The introduction
of outsiders to the community is usually presented as a threat.
It departs from realism in its use of caricature, stereotyping,
bursts of stylised repartee and occasional use of melodrama, some
of these features sometimes being employed almost self-mockingly.
It has been criticized for the minimal role of non-whites. There
is little of the inner searching of 'psychological realism'. Viewing
ratings dropped when an attempt was made to introduce more contemporary
themes, and there was then a move towards a lighter, more humorous
style. One producer said in 1985: 'We are in the business of entertaining,
not offending' (in Goodwin & Whannel 1990, p. 122). Rival
soaps have led to some attempts to update the style. However,
it has been criticized as having grown old with its audience.
The camerawork and editing is very conventional. Cutting is largely
motivated by dialogue. Camerawork consists primarily of group
shots, 2-shots or 3-shots (in medium to medium close-up), shot-reverse
shot, occasional panning, and close-ups of single characters for
emphasis.
Brookside, set in a modern Liverpool housing estate, first
appeared in 1982, and it became Channel 4's highest-rated programme
with around 6 million viewers (it also appears on S4C in Wales).
Producer Phil Redmond declared that it would 'tell the truth and
show society as it really is', dealing with what are seen as topical
issues and problems such as unemployment (in Goodwin & Whannel
1990, p. 123). 'The Close' uses part of a real housing estate
rather than a constructed studio set.
It features a range of characters from different social classes,
and some of the actors are similar to the characters they play.
It has a number of young characters (including some still at school)
so not surprisingly it appeals very much to younger viewers. It
also offers a wider range of male characeters than the traditional
British soaps. Geraghty suggests that the programme has also given
more prominence to 'male preoccupations': 'Brookside has
developed story lines which depend more on action and resolution
rather than the more soap-oriented narrative strategies of commentary
and repetition' (Geraghty 1991, p. 169). It has sometimes drawn
on the genre of the crime series.
The use of real houses tends to restrict it to a single-camera
approach. There are no real meeting places, which makes it difficult
to weave several stories together. And it has sometimes been criticized
for being too didactic.
Eastenders, a BBC production, was first broadcast in 1985.
It is watched by a little under a third of the British population,
by more women than men, and more by those in lower socio-economic
groups (Livingstone 1990, p. 55). The BBC is aware of its 'responsibility'
as a public service (unlike commercial British television companies)
to be of benefit to the public, and to produce 'serious' programmes
of 'quality'. The characters tend to be mainly working class.
In addition to women, young characters and men are given strong
roles, so that the potential audience is wide. It has become particularly
popular with teenagers. Buckingham notes that 'much of their fascination
- and particularly that of the younger children - arose from its
inclusion of aspects of adult life from which they were
normally "protected"' (1987, p. 200).
Set in London's East End, it is in the social realist tradition.
The programme makers emphasized that it was to be about 'everyday
life' in the inner city 'today' (in Goodwin & Whannel 1990,
p. 124). They regard it as a 'slice of life'. Producer Julia Smith
disingenuously declared that 'we don't make life, we reflect it'
(Geraghty 1991, p. 32). She has also reported: 'We decided to
go for a realistic, fairly outspoken type of drama which could
encompass stories about homosexuals, rape, unemployment, racial
prejudice, etc. in a believable context. Above all, we wanted
realism. Unemployment, exams, racism, birth, death, dogs, babies,
unmarried mums - we didn't want to fudge any issue except politics
and swearing' (ibid., p. 16).
Eastenders has also featured single-parent families, teenage
pregnancy, prostitution, arranged marriages, attempted suicide,
drug problems, alcoholism, generational conflicts, a protection
racket, a cot death, extra-marital affairs and marital bust-ups,
sexism, urban deprivation, mental breakdown, disappearances, muggings,
a fatal road accident and a suspected murder: it has sometimes
been criticized for being bleak! Perhaps in an attempt to attract
more male viewers once can sometimes notice a tendency to shift
a little towards the genre of the crime series. Nevertheless,
much of the action remains deliberately mundane.
Although it was part of the intention to handle 'controversial
social issues' the programme makers insist that Eastenders
is not 'issues-based' (i.e. storylines are not developed simply
to illustrate predetermined issues). They see themselves as pursuing
'documentary realism' and their dramatic use of conflict leads
to issues arising 'naturally' (Buckingham 1987, pp. 16; 30; 83).
They accept that the programme has an informational or educational
function for viewers, offering a discussion of topics of concern
to them, but they are more concerned with raising questions than
with offering answers. Entertainment is seen as the main purpose.
The programme makers probably seek to avoid putting viewers off
by seeming to be patronising. However, critics have occasionally
noted episodes involving a very didactic style.
The programme does not confine itself to the naturalistic mode,
but sometimes shifts towards either melodrama or sitcom. Buckingham
observes that the camerawork and editing is in the naturalist
tradition, supporting an interpretation of the programme as a
'window on the world': the use of the camera is unobtrusive and
largely static, with only rare use of close-ups and tracking;
the editing seeks to be 'invisible'; the background sound has
a 'density of naturalistic detail'; lighting is usually flat,
with no harsh shadows (ibid., p. 74). However, he also
notes that it tends to have more simultaneous storylines, more
scenes, more meeting-places, more characters per episode, and
a faster pace than either Coronation Street or Brookside
(ibid., p. 54).
Dallas, a high-budget American weekly prime-time soap first
screened in 1976, has been broadcast in over 90 countries. One
fifth of the British population watched it; viewers included more
women than men (Livingstone 1990, p. 55). Some theorists distinguish
the American prime-time soaps Dallas and Dynasty
from British social realist soaps by referring to these US soaps
as 'melodramatic serials'. They certainly featured the villains,
villainesses and emotional excess of melodrama and sometimes drifted
into total fantasy. Elements of the Western were also employed.
These soaps focused, of course, on the rich: 'poverty is eliminated
by the simple tactic of ignoring it' (Geraghty 1991, p. 121).
Glamour was a key feature: locations were often exotic and the
costumes of the main actresses were often extravagant; viewers
were invited into a world of abundance. Most of the characters
were physically very attractive, and almost all were white. Dallas
also made more use of cliffhangers than British soaps: usually
a 'psychological cliffhanger', Ang notes (1985, p. 53). Dallas
featured the rivalry between the Ewing family and the Barnes
family, but business life was far more central than in British
soaps. The story also featured murder, marital crisis, adultery,
alcoholism, illness, miscarriage, rape, air and car accidents,
kidnapping, corruption, illegitimate children, secret pasts, chance
meetings and so on.
Some critics say that 'too much happens' in US soaps by comparison
with British ones: the pace tends to be faster. An episode typically
featured 20-30 short scenes, most of which consisted of conversation.
Camerawork and editing remained conventional, to avoid distancing
the viewer. Facial expressions are sometimes shown in close-up
and held for a few seconds before the next scene. Regarding soaps
in general, Tania Modleski (1982, pp. 99-100) notes that close-ups
(seen by Robert Allen as a key feature of prime-time soaps) provide
training in the 'feminine' skills of 'reading people' - in understanding
the difference between what is said and what is meant - as well
as an invitation to become involved with the characters depicted.
This Australian soap was aimed at young people, and attracted
many young viewers in the UK. It has been criticized for its bland
stereotyping. It tends to feature primarily physically attractive
people and there is also a notable absence of people of colour.
Maire Messenger Davies suggests that 'nothing goes wrong in Neighbours
for very long and that's why children like it' (in Hart 1991,
p. 136).
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Eastenders Corona- Emmer- Brookside Neighbours
week- omni- tion dale week- omni- lunch after-
days bus Street Farm days bus time noon
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Age
4-15 16 17 11 10 16 18 8 32
16-24 14 17 10 8 19 18 12 15
25-34 18 16 14 12 19 18 17 14
35-44 15 13 12 10 14 12 14 13
45-54 12 13 13 12 10 12 12 10
55-64 11 10 14 16 11 11 11 7
65+ 14 14 26 32 11 11 26 9
Sex
Male 40 39 40 41 36 41 30 40
Female 60 61 60 59 64 59 70 60
Social grade
AB 12 8 10 9 12 11 11 14
C1 22 20 19 18 18 18 21 22
C2 32 33 29 27 34 30 29 33
DE 34 39 42 46 36 41 39 31
Average audience (millions)
13.4 6.5 16.2 11.2 4.0 2.4 6.6 10.8
----------------------------------------------------------------------
(Adapted from Hart 1991, p. 35)
Socio-economic grades: A higher managerial, administrative
or professional; B intermediate managerial, administrative
or professional; C1 supervisory or clerical, and junior
managerial, administrative or professional; C2 skilled
manual worker; D semi and unskilled manual workers; E
state pensioners or widows (no other earner in household), casual
or lower grade workers, and unemployed.
Soaps in general have a predominantly female audience, although
prime-time soaps such as Dallas and the most recent British
soaps are deliberately aimed at a wider audience. According to
Ang, and hardly surprisingly, in Dallas the main interest
for men was in business relations and problem and the power and
wealth shown, whereas for women were more often interested in
the family issues and love affairs. In the case of Dallas
it is clear that the programme meant something different for female
viewers compared with male viewers.
In 'realist' soaps female characters are portrayed as more central
than in action drama, as ordinary people coping with everyday
problems. Certainly soaps tend to appeal to those who value the
personal and domestic world. The audience for such soaps does
include men, but some theorists argue that the gender identity
of the viewer is 'inscribed' in programmes, and that typically
with soaps the inscribed viewer has a traditional female gender
identity. And 'the competences necessary for reading soap opera
are most likely to have been acquired by those persons culturally
constructed through discourses of femininity' (Morley 1992, p.
129).
As housewives and mothers, women need to be able to do several
things at once, to switch from one task to another, to deal with
other people's problems, to be interrupted. Redundancy and repetition
make interrupted viewing possible; it has even been suggested
that soaps are made to be heard rather than seen.
Modleski argues that watching soap operas habituates women to
distraction and fragmentation.
Dorothy Hobson interviewed women office workers in Birmingham
and found that their free-time conversation was often based on
their soap opera viewing. Some had begun watching simply because
they had discovered how central it seemed to be in lunchtime discussions.
It involved anticipating what might happen next, discussing the
significance of recent events and relating them to their own experiences.
Hobson argues that women typically use soaps as a way of talking
indirectly about their own attitudes and behaviour (in Seiter
et al. 1989: pp. 150-67). Geraghty (1991, p. 123) also
notes that there is some evidence that families use soaps as a
way of raising and discussing awkward situations.
Most viewers seem to oscilate between involvement and distance
in the ways in which they engage with soaps.
Daniel Chandler
What is a soap opera?
Soaps compared with other genres
Subject-matter and style
The openness of soaps
Realism
Stereotypes
Coronation Street
Brookside
Eastenders
Dallas and Dynasty
Neighbours
UK Soap Audience in 1988 (%)
Women as viewers
References
November 1994
