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TSR Wiki > Study Help > Subjects and Revision > Revision Notes > Media Studies > Soaps - Realism

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Contents 1 REALISM 2 EMOTIONAL REALISM 3 LIMITS OF REALISM 4 SOCIAL REALISM 5 Comments

REALISM

• Realism in media texts can be constructed in a number of ways and will depend on different cultures and contexts. (Neighbours is the most successful international soap, it’s foreign enough to please without confusing, it could be argued that BBC’s Elderado did, Danish language etc)

• Ideological realism convince audience, ideas, values and beliefs, even if that audience does not share those. (Neighbours and H+A are examples; the warm weather is associated with fresh, freedom+casual life style that British aspire to as offering a “world beyond”. Elderado aimed for the same but failed)

• If realism is not right, soaps will be unsuccessful&comical.

• Soap does not present a mirror image of the world, but a carefully crafted view.

• O’Sullivan, Dutton and Rayner identified four features of the construction of realism in media texts

SURFACE REALISM (appropriate props +costumes are important)

• Audience expects the scene to look ‘real’ and costumes should be up to date and reveal something about the character:
  • Alfie Bright shirts = funny “bloke” Peggy skirt heals=power.
  • Kim Tate-suits with short skirt stilettos =high power job, knows how to use her sexuality
  • Frank.B- suit= high position Martha- cleaner uniform=w/c

• In 1987 Enders had 5 million more viewers than Corro (Old-fashioned compared to realistic look of Enders and Brookie, so Corro changed to more location filming)

(Phil Redmond ordered different size houses to be built in Brookie close so clashes of lifestyle ideals would be tested.)

• Attempts to replicate real time, clock in a shot is more common, to help audiences’ knowledge of what time of day it is.

• Monday episode, characters refer to weekend; audience believe they have a life outside when the soap is shown.

EMOTIONAL REALISM

• Audience identify with the psychological factors affecting a character and share his or her feelings. Despite unrealistic narratives and improbable actions. (Hilda Ogden’s husband died in Corro, audience had history with her making it easy to sympathise& understand her just through expression)(Zoe found out Kat=Mum, tears&hugs etc were visually more memorable than the actual dialogue itself)

• Allows audiences to derive enjoyment from their viewing

• Est, character must continue and not be “out of character”,audience would lose trust&it undermines the Emotional.R.

• Emotional realism is needed for audiences to understand why a character acted in a particular way. (Lisa shot Phil; the audience knew and understood why she had done it.)

LIMITS OF REALISM

Stewart et al identified criticisms of soap’s construction of realism and representation

• Characters’ problems are not linked to wider world. If a character suffers unemployment, the issue is represented in relation to their individual circumstance and not relating to the wider public or political sphere. (Arthur Fowler in Enders) (Although Brookie broke this convention with Billy Grant)

• Minority characters are misrepresented and under-represented, despite these groups having a presence in Britain. Usually shopowners (Sunita in Corro)

• We rarely see characters doing ordinary day to day activities like housework. (The cast of Enders do all laundry in the laundrette)

• Soaps are moralistic; characters who step out of line in some way are seen punished.(Kat Slater being single and Julie in Eastenders dealing cocaine) (Jesse drinking in H+A) (Rik found with “weed”)

• The realism in soap can only ever be surface reality, as major news stories never reach the soap “world”.

• Characters can never develop in significant ways without leaving home, meaning leaving the soap. But they can make unexpected returns (Sam Mitchell and Flin in H+A)

• Child characters in some soap operas can mature rapidly, going from birth to adolescence (and romance plots) in a few years (Martin Fowler and Tracey Barlow). Neighbours has been known to make young characters age faster off screen than theyre real age should be.

• Eastenders have problems with the actors, alcoholism, illness, leaving the remainder of the actors exhausted and demoralised. (Den’s ( Lesley Grantham’s) criminal past and Elaine Lordan “alcoholic” and Natalie Cassidy in Heat “Worst Dressed”)

• It could be argued that bad script writing caused by BBC&Enders working together and under the impression that they have to justify the fee by including every conflict and unhappiness in each episode.

(Crossroads showed 5 times a week, the quality lowered and was less accurate because of the time scale)

SOCIAL REALISM

• Trace soaps origins and influences back to writers such as Dickens and Hardy, who in their novels contained generic soap conventions. They also addressed the important social issues at that time such as education, disease and poverty.

• Britain post WWII writers John Braine and Stan Barstow focused on issues relating to w/c and lower m/c life. Addressed contemporary issues concerning young people, such as teenage pregnancy, broken homes, family conflict, unhappy marriages, infidelity, homosexuality and unemployment.

• (Corro started in 1960, a time when cinema was stressing the importance of drawing on the lives of “ordinary” people)

• (BBC’s launch of the soap “Elderado” was made because if was the “hayday” of package holidays and it was British people in Spain.) Also because the BBC, (in the 90’s) was vulnerable between 7 and 9 as ITV was introducing drama such as The Bill. It could be argued that it slumped to 3 million viewers from 10 million is because of the unrealistic setting for a long period of time.

• Corro and Enders tried to follow this approach by using young, w/c actors, having characters speak with a particular accent, developing storylines which addressed contemporary social issues. (Brookside’s Phil Redman chose people who had the characteristics and experiences already like Ricky Tomlinson playing the hard-nosed powerful gobby character.)

• (Neighbours did not present as deep social problems, this could be because&be argued that there’s no class-system in Australia)

• Corro and Enders have wider class profile now to when they to reflect the blurring between w/c and m/c in British society.

• Soap would be alienating their audience if they didn’t reflect present contemporary issues. (Corro seemed dated when Brookie revolutionised soap in 1982, as Corro had done 20 years earlier)

• The countries screening Neighbours are mostly Anglophone and this is familiar with British and Australian soaps. US did not like neighbours as it wasn’t “raunchy” enough compared to their current soaps.

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).