Soaps and Sociology

Clearly a big part of soap is its auidience but also its affect on society, how it represents it for example. I am looking into this as when I start planning my own soap I have to make sure it follows conventions by representing characters realistically.

the soap has to have good representations of its characters that reflect the real world. Characters should contemplate realistic people and story lines, their is much stereotyping in soaps for example a troublesome teenager etc. Characters in story lines are also represented in different ways for example their maybe an affair the audience have to take a side do they feel sorry for the person being cheated or are they on the side of the adulterer. Although it may be obvious the person being cheated on may be an abusive husband for example, in that case public opinions would likely be very different. An appealing aspect of soaps is how the audience like to take sides. Some controversial story lines can be seen with Eastender's infamous 'baby-swap' plot receiving thousands of complaints which some would argue is not very representational. Other controversial storylines include a Muslim man struggling to come to terms with his homosexuality.

There are arguments if soaps  reflect realism and are representational or not whether they tackle controversial social issues and are realistic or if they are 'dumbing-down' and are simple to follow.

Negative viewpoints-
 . Not at all educational 'brain-numbing'
 . un-realistic that bsuch drama happens in just a street or square
 . Very simple view of life
 . Encourage TV addiction as on so much
 . Tabloids focus so much on soap easy to lose focus on reality
 . Writing is poor
 .  Un-realistic  and  make mockeries of social issues.


Positive Viewpoints
- Encourage more reflection on our own lives and society's as soaps epitomise our society
- Can serve as history due to their realism for example an episode in a particular decade will give a good representation of that decade.
- Maintain a balance between realism and fiction
- Very well put together storytelling
- Soaps deal with controversail issues responsibly and effectively
- Good acting

It seems one viewpoint may compliment what the other insults however social issues like alcoholism, homosexuality, bullying, child abuse, affairs, teenage pregnency and various illeness do somewhat reflect the concerns of the public to some degree. So it does seem that soaps do reflect society, this can be seen also with 2005's film 'This is England' which reflected the society at the time to some degree.

An example can  be seen in the soap 'Crossroads' which didn't seem at all realistic a lot of it being live and a low budget set meant it wasn't rare for lines to be forgotten and the set looked unrealistic this is a negative example on soaps, suggesting they are not social documentations. But a lot of soaps do include realism , it is a very debated issue but i know to make my soap trailer incorporate realistic story lines which reflect society and this will hopefully aid in creating a well constructed  and conventional soap trailer.