Soap Opera

                          The Way Soap Opera Constructs Reality

The purpose of this essay is to reveal the trend soap operas follow and why they use certain topics to lure there ideal audiances.

The two soap operas I have been studying are Eastenders and Hollyoaks, Even though both soap operas have many attributes in common such as stereotyping characters and a sense of realism, they have one thing not in common, Eastenders is based on a stereotypical working class environment and detects how these working class people struggle with every day aspects whilst Hollyoaks tends to show the brighter side of society.

The themes used in almost every soap opera are all about keeping the audience on the edge of their seat to keep them interested , many topics are successful in undertaking this, frequent topics such as :

• Drama
• Teenage Pregnancy
• Drugs
• Murder
• Health Issues
• Cliff hangers
• love

All of these topics are used every day in soap operas as they occur in everyday life which makes it more believable to the audience if they have experienced it. The program Eastenders has a kind of routine to how they will launch these topics to create the illusion of realism, for example it will carry out drama everyday from the smallest argument in the square to a character finding out they are a father. They use special occasions such as weddings and especially Christmas to reveal the cliff hangers that have been stirring for months, the audience can always expect a big explosion at Christmas time, and it can be revealed that someone has been murdered to someone leaving the soap opera. In Hollyoaks they use a different approach to getting these topics across in there series’ as they use cliff hangers such as gold-digger’s and how the plot unfolds, whilst at special occasions like Christmas time they reveal the build up awareness of topics such as affairs and characters leaving the soap.  A Media theorist called Len Ang also expressed his idea that emotional realism is used as we the audience can relate to it which makes the soap operas simple to believe.

Technical codes such as recurring themes and Archetypal characters are buzzing in soap operas as they are what make the TV show so much more enjoyable to know that there is a familiarity and routine in the soap opera which makes it more realistic. In Eastenders recurring themes is nothing out of the ordinary as we see drama happen every day and every occasion has its explosion of tragedy or even rarely happiness, and we also have the character that seems to be the main attraction of the program like ‘The Queen of Walford’ Peggy Mitchell who has been in the program since it began. However the program doesn’t have its main characters as everyone has equal spotlight, this is similar to Hollyoaks as they also have no spotlight for one or one group of characters, as it wouldn’t be a soap opera about a community, this contributes to the delusion of the soap opera being reality. Sound is an important part of technical codes as is builds up the scene and creates an atmosphere amung the audiance, in soap operas there are no non-diegetic music this is to create the realism of the episode where as shows such as Dexter have non-diegetic music to create suspense but this results in the audience not believing that the TV show is real, the only music that is shown in soap operas are the theme tune and the soap operas montage, in Eastenders the music is calm and has a pace with instruments such as drums and keyboard, this music is to create a realness to the soap opera as the music is basic and does not make it sound professionally done. Whereas Hollyoaks is a livelier theme tune as the pace is faster and the instruments used are more energetic such as drums and electric guitar, as the audience know that electric guitars are usually used in rock bands and this foreshadows to the audience that the soap opera will be full of drama but will have high points. The montage for Eastenders is the camera rising over the east end so it looks like a map, and the main attractions in the east end such as the O2 and river Thames are there so it makes it obvious to the reader that the soap opera is based on the east end, where as in Hollyoaks the montage is colourful and the characters feature in there.  Continuity editing is used in soap operas constantly as it shows how the characters do a routine, for example in the morning the audience could view a shot of a character making a cup of tea in their pyjamas then a continuity shot is used to switch to another characters kitchen where they could be getting ready, this is to show the realism of the daily routine that the characters go though as most people can relate to that routine of getting up in your pyjamas and having breakfast, this editing is to make it as realistic as possible otherwise the audience will not believe it .

Soap opera are praised for their use of theories of realism as they face and reveal taboos that many people do not talk about and are ashamed of such as gay and lesbian relationships and embarrassing health issues such as bipolar illness, soap operas such as Eastenders and Hollyoaks feature these topics on their series as they believe that they should be confronted and change the way people and society stereotype the people who are ‘different’, Eastenders and Hollyoaks are a couple of examples who encourage gay people to feel good about themselves and also tackle religious issues ht may be useful to the audience. These soap operas are successful in creating a ‘realistic’ world as they also use iconography such as in Eastenders they have landmarks that are always present in the series’ such as ‘The Queen Vic’ or ‘The Square’ .  the audience can also consider that the soap opera is factual by how the camera uses its shots and the mise-en-scene used, as the colours used like it costume represent the kind of character wearing it, for example an outspoken character would wear bright colours such as red and a negative character would wear black .the camera uses the same shots and movement most of the time as soap operas are low budget this backs up the idea of realism as special effects are rarely used.

The characters are a vital issue of creating a realistic atmosphere as they are the main attraction of the soap opera and they are the glue which holds the illusion together, the characters represent issues that are hard for regular people to accept , like for children accepting their parents getting a divorce and how to cope, or gay people showing their affection for each other in public, these characters give people who watch the program the strength and guidance they need to face these issues. The characters also have their own catch phrases which sum up there character as normal people do say a certain phrase constantly and people can acquaint that person with the phrase, this gives a practicality to the program. When we see a character experience topics such as tragedy etc they normally get a close up of their face to show there emotion which makes it easier for the audience to feel how that character is feeling.

In conclusion soap operas are based to illustrate topics such as death, romance and drama etc to help the audience if they have ever experienced something similar, also people watch these programs because they are a straight form of gossip as people are instinctively nosey especially women so it is like a relief after they see it , the audience could assume that these soap operas have a more feminine audience as women are interested in the program as it has great gossip and interesting stories involved.