Soap Operas, Essay Example

The soap opera can be viewed as an archetypical example of the synthesis of broadcast programming and the culture of marketing and consumption that characterize American broadcasting. The soap opera began as a form of programming for public consumption offered by independent broadcasting networks, in the genre of light entertainment. The name derives from various corporations such as Procter & Gamble, which sponsored and aided in the financing of this form of entertainment, as such firms also sold soap products.

The soap opera can be distinguished in terms of form and content. The episodic form of soap operas allowed for the listener to become involved in the narrative form, thus continually drawing them back to paying attention to the program on a regular basis. This episodic form was thus crucial to the desire to develop a listener (and in the television era: viewer) base that would continually follow the programs. Accordingly, the content of the soap opera is usually that of the melodrama, with plotlines and developments used to maintain the listener’s attention by appealing to a certain populist narrative, to which the most number of listeners can identify according to cultural norms. Long running soap operas such as “As the World Turns” and “Guiding Light” predate television” (Bayem, 114) demonstrating the power of their narratives on the public imagination. However, soap operas also use non-conventional plot twists to also maintain the reader’s attention, bordering on the absurd – in this sense, soap opera could be considered a non-conventional narrative form. This non-conventual form, however, is not the result of any aesthetic innovation, but rather the desire for companies to maintain a consistent listener and viewer base in order to sell products.

Works Cited

Baym, Nancy K. “Interpreting Soap Operas and Creating Community: Inside a Electronic Fan Culture.” Culture of the Internet. Ed. Sarah Kiesler. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Inc., 1997. 103-120.

Biagi, Shirley. Media/Impact: An Introduction to Mass Media. Belmont, CA: Thomson Higher Education, 2007.