A soap opera, better known as soap for short, is an on-going television program that shows issues that people may face in reality. There are many TV soaps that have been on the television for many years, some of these soaps could include, Eastenders, Emmerdale, Coronation Street, Hollyoaks, and Neighbours. There are two types of soaps that can be advertised on the TV, which are serial soaps as well as series. Serial being soaps that will continue such as Eastenders and series which are programs that are on the TV for a short amount of time, for example Waterloo Road.
There are several characteristics/conventions that define a soap opera, some of these conventions being issues within the family life, sexual dramas/affairs, personal relationships and also murders within the soap. The reason why conventions such as the ones listed are usually the main stories of soaps because they are the sort of things that can happen within everyday life.
During our Media Studies lesson (6/9/12) we looked at an episode of the soap Eastenders and answered the following question, ’How can an episode of Eastenders help the audience catch up?’ The main focus of the episode of Eastenders, Charlie Slater goes on telling Kat Slater (His daughter) about problems that he had in the past. This helps the audience catch up because as Charlie is going through the history of his past, which helps the audience remember about what has actually happened in the soap, in the past. Kat also reminds the audience about the problems that Gene has also had in the past.
