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TSR Wiki > Study Help > Subjects and Revision > Revision Notes > Media Studies > Soaps - Themes and Plausible Plots
THEMES
- Love and Relationships (crucial + central)
(In Enders, Mitchell’s, Dingles, Corkhills) family loyalty, family feud (It could be argued that the “Family is the new meaning of community”)
(It could be argued that Neighbour’s set the example for appealing to the teen market to other soaps. Young couples in “love”, Kylie and Jason’s on and off screen love affair)
- Gossip-not friendly gossip (every episode)Enders’ turn around and popularity, everyone wanted to know who father of Michelle’s baby?)
- Revenge (Zoe in H+A had revenge against the bay for her friend Sarah)
- Secrets (Dramatic Irony) (1st episode Pauline pregnant)
- Sickness and death (common in older soaps) (1st episode of enders) (Martha 1964 in corro)
- Violence- (First episode of enders, nick and Ai fighting)
- Plans going wrong- first episode, Enders Den and Angie’s wedding anniversary is disrupted and Den has to come and break up the conflict between Nick and Ali.
- Class- most of the characters in soaps have working class jobs. (in Corro episode in 1964, Martha is talking about going to Spain and this appealed to w/c audience, as passports were being made available to w/c at that time)
- Gender- progression in genre and society, it is seen as more important than class 20 years on since Corro, as Angie (Landlady) is helping Ethel (cleaner) clean, as Den watches them.
- War and order knowing where your place is, a theme in older coronation street episodes, as Martha and Frank.B know their social status and place.
Family occasions=key factor success; audiences experienced family gatherings
- Celebrations are usually end of a plot and the start of another (Sharon and Dennis’s wedding and Den’s found)
PLAUSIBLE PLOTS
- If soaps introduced a ludicrous story they risk losing loyal audience members and therefore have to avoid implausible plots but maintaining the idea of “life with the heat turned up”
- Emmerdale- plane crash killed off 4 of the cast. Audience figures slumped as people thought the story was too far fetched.
- Dallas-Duffy returned, Pam went to the shower to find him standing there. It seems she had dreamt the entire season.
- In 1980 in crossroads, characters were killed off unexplained and this eventually lead the soap to become a “laughing stock” and finished
- H+A Josie Russell who is now played by the same actress as Angela Russell was who was killed off, Josie and her cousin claim to be identical.
- Preserve a sense of realism, the audience must be able to believe that there is a possibility it would happen in real life. “Everyday life with the boredom cut out”
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).
