a) What is a soap opera? List as many programmes as you can which you consider to be soap operas. What features do they have in common? Is it possible to identify subgenres of soap opera?
When you have done this, compare your notes with the following information from the BBC's guide to Life, The Universe and Everything
Examine and analyse an evening’s TV schedule - either using a magazine, newspaper, or websites such as tvguide.co.uk , onthebox.com or the radio times . Identify what soaps are on and when. Check BARB to get soap viewing figures for the major terrestrial channels, and find out how many of the top ten programmes are soaps.
- What do these figures tell us about soap audiences? What impact does scheduling have on audiences?How does scheduling help broadcasters target an audience who will appreciate the programme?
Choose a social group which is represented in soap operas (i.e. young people, old people, men, women, disabled people, ethnic minorities etc), and examine how that particular group is represented in two different soaps.
4. Create Your Own Soap Opera
Design and plan a new soap opera and pitch your idea to the rest of the class. There will be a prize for the winning pitch; 10 marks will be awarded for each of the following categories:
- Media Forms and Conventions: how closely does your idea follow established generic conventions of character, plot, and setting? Go into detail about who the characters are, their relationships and conflicts with each other. Find pictures, design a logo or title sequence, and maybe even compose the opening music.
- Media Audiences and Institutions: who is your core audience and how do you intend to target them? When is your soap scheduled to be broadcast? What time/day? How can you use the internet to reach your audience?
- Media Representations and Ideology: what vision of Britian are you trying to portray in this soap? Are you setting out to challenge and subvert established social prejudices or are you going to rely on safe conservative stereotypes?
BBC 1: 4 eastenders all in top 3 as in gold silver and bronze.
ReplyDelete40% of top 10 programmes where eastenders which are soaps
By Alex hollway
Eastenders is on at 8.00 on Monday and Friday and 7.30 Tuesday and Thursday
ReplyDeleteCoronation Street is on 7.30 and 8.30 Monday and Friday and 8.30 Thursday
Emmerdale is on at 7.00 on every week night
Soap audiences appear to include a wide age range from the times they are shown, 12 year olds will still be awake as will their parents so it can be viewed by the family, they are shown around tea time or just after people have got home from work and had time to relax.
This scheduling means people know when they are on all the time as the times seem to hardly change so they can plan viewing around these programmes, when shown at 8 or 8.30 they will usually be followed by a drama or documentary. This may be beneficial to television channels as people who watch the soaps all the time may then remain watching that channel for the next program.
On BBC1 4 of the top ten programmes are soap operas, Eastenders, which would appear to be there only soap. However they do show Doctors but this is shown on weekdays and therefore is bound to have lower viewing figures.
On ITV1 7 of the top ten programmes are soap operas, Emmerdale and Coronation Street. These are this channels only soaps.
On Channel 4 none of the top ten programmes are soap operas. They do show a soap, Hollyoaks, this is shown at 6.30.
From this it could be though that the soaps shown at 7.30-8.30 are the most popular. Hollyoaks clashes with news programmes on rival channels which bring in big audiences and Emmerdale rivals the popular One Show on BBC1.
Bethany xxx
Taken from TV Guide.
ReplyDeleteHollyoaks - 6.30pm,Channel 4, Monday - Friday
Emmerdale - 7.00pm,ITV, Monday - Friday
Eastenders - 7.30pm,Tues+Thurs,8.00pm Mon+Fri, BBC1
Coronation St. - 7.30pm, ITV, Mon + Friday
Wednesday - Eastenders isn't on, on a wednesday, probably because they are already showing 'Waterloo Rd.' @ 9.00pm
Each Soap seems to be scheduled one after the other. This could be due to the type of target audiences, who may possibly follow all the different soaps.
Andrea xxx
scheduling has an impact in the sence that audiences are more likely to watch the television at peak times such as after work, so this is when the most popular programmes are shown such as Eastenders.
ReplyDeletescheduling helps the broadcaster target the audience due to time as they schedule the more watched programmes when there audience finishes work or children are watching television before school.
Alex Hollway
Gender in EastEnders and Hollyoaks
ReplyDeleteEastEnders- male and female
Women
The women are shown as the more emotional sex- is upset when her son runs away; the father doesn’t seem as affected.
Gossiping and making a scene- two women have an argument in the middle of the pub and the men don’t get involved in the argument but try to stop them
Male
Fighting and aggression- a young man rolls to go to war, it is also revealed that he shot his uncle
Hollyoaks-male and female
female
Worried about appearance-applying makeup and complaining about complexion.
male
Forgot anniversary showing that relationship means more to women
regionality- Easternders and corenation street
ReplyDeletethere was not much difference between the two except that eastenders was set more in posher enviroments and corrie was set more in a lower class pub, but both soaps were lower class people with minor differentiations
Alex Hollway
The conclusions that I drew from looking at British Soap Opera's on the week commencing the 18th April where:
ReplyDeleteCorination Street, Emmerdale and Eadstenders where all on around the same time of 7.30-8pm and all feature more than twice a week. I think it is put on at these times because it becomes more of a family event with everyone sitting down and eating together whilst watching these Soaps and it therefore makes the soap seems more like a reality soap.
they are all scheduled one after another as the broadcasters aren't going to want to broadcast soaps at the same time as viewers figures would then have to split as people chose which soap to watch.
Eastenders was the fabvourite soap with 9.5 million viewers on average over this week.
Friday soaps wernt as successfull as the week soaps. I out this down to socialising reasons and therefore it proves that soaps during the week are more popular than those over the weekend and later on in the week hence why few soaps are shown over the weekend (Saturday and Sunday)
Emily Richards