TSR Wiki > Study Help > Subjects and Revision > Revision Notes > Media Studies > Soaps - Race and Minorities
Representation of race in SOAP
NEIGHBOURS and HOME & AWAY
- They rarely feature any ethnic characters as main characters, despite some parts of Australia being home to large Asian and Greek populations, who probably make up a large percentage of the audience. (Those there were the Alessis' of Greek decent, Lori Lee (an Asian-New Zelander), the Carminetis of Italian decent, the Chinese family the Lim's, Liljana Bishop and her mother Svetlanka Ristik of Serbian decent and the Belorussian-Asians the Kinski's.
- However, Home and Away regularly feature Greek characters.
EASTENDERS
- It is set in the east End of London, a part of the country famously multi-cultural. However Enders fails to present any plausible black or ethnic characters.
- Like most soaps they stick to the stereotypical views.
- In the 1990’s when the Tavernier family were introduces they were represented as gospel-singing evangelists, where three generations lived under the same roof, a limited representation when they are all involved in drugs or violence
- The Truman family have strong parts in storylines that do not exclusively revolve around the issues of race.
- A popular stereotype of young black men, is to be involved in massive drug scandals (e.g Paul Truman)
Comments
These notes are based on the requirements for AQA A2 Media Studies, though will be relevant for other boards too.
Some of the examples may need updating for current exams (though still valid, there are more recent examples you could use).
