Soap Operas

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SOAP OPERAS

Daytime serials, or soap operas as they are better known, have a form and structure that separates them from other television genres. Rather than beginning and ending within the space of thirty to sixty minutes, soap operas never really begin or end. The stories continually unfold year after year at a slower pace than other genres and without episodic resolution. Soap operas leave unanswered questions at commercial breaks, they include flashbacks and repetition as a device to clue viewers in on elements they may have missed and to prompt further contemplation, and there are no reruns. In other words, a soap opera is a never-ending story that does not abide by traditional television rules.

One of the biggest nighttime soap operas in the early 1980s was Dynasty, which dramatized events surrounding the wealthy Carrington family and featured the actors (left to right) Kathleen Beller, Pamela Sue Martin, Joan Collins, Linda Evans, and John Forsythe. (Bettmann/Corbis)

Soap operas began on the radio in the 1930s as a device to sell soap products to women. Sponsors created programming to air between their product commercials. In 1940, there were sixty-four soap operas on the radio that ran fifteen minutes each. Guiding Light, which debuted on the radio in 1937 and on television in 1952, was the only soap opera to make the change from radio to television.

By the 1980s, each of the three major networks had more airtime dedicated to daytime serials (210 to 240 minutes) than to prime-time programming (180 minutes). Indeed, prime-time programming included a number of its own serials such as Dallas, Dynasty, Falcon Crest, and Knots Landing. Although audiences eventually declined and several soap operas were canceled, including NBC's Another World (which aired for thirty-five years), by the end of the 1990s, eleven serials were broadcast daily.

One reason for the apparent decline in viewers was the introduction of videocassette recorders (VCRs), which allowed viewers to decide when to watch. Although nearly 12 percent of the U.S. population reported videotaping soap operas in 1996, VCR viewers have not generally been included in audience ratings because advertisers assume the viewers do not watch the commercials. In response to the viewers' need for alternative viewing times coupled with the advertisers' need to show commercials, a new cable network was launched on January 24, 2000, in Los Angeles and New York. Soap Net runs current ABC soap operas three times a day along with reruns of older soap operas that are no longer on the air. By June 2000, SoapNet was available in select cities across the United States and through DirecTV. New technology continues to affect soap operas. The introduction of the Internet brought more of a sense of community among soap opera fans who discuss the serials online.

The audience for soap operas has always been mostly women. However, in the United States, the percentage of male viewers increased to about 25 percent in the 1990s. The percentage of teenage viewers also increased over time. African Americans represent nearly 27 percent of the viewers for some soap operas, although they comprise only 12.8 percent of the total U.S. population.

Other than the occasional content analysis, academics paid little attention to soap operas until the early 1980s, when feminists began to defend the decidedly female genre. Feminists challenged academics to examine what made soap operas so popular with women. Tania Modleski (1983) argued that women were attracted to soap operas because they followed a feminine rather than a masculine narrative. She defined the feminine narrative of soap operas as stories that are (1) nonlinear, which means they have no clear beginning, middle, and end, (2) based on dialogue rather than action, (3) contain numerous interruptions, and (4) disperse the attention and loyalties of the viewers. Modleski also argued that unlike masculine narrative, in which the climax is resolution, the ultimate resolution is constantly yet to come in soap operas. Pleasure comes from anticipation rather than resolution.

Content is another defining element of soap operas, in which the elements of conflict and family are central. The ratio of male characters to female characters is approximately equal, similar to that of the United States, whereas in prime-time television male characters have outnumbered female characters as much as three to one. Although the number of African-American characters on soap operas has increased, research has found that those characters are less likely to have intimate contact than white characters. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, serial writers and producers introduced more social issues, such as interracial romance, mental illness, homosexuality, AIDS, abortion, and alcohol and drug addiction. Health issues have long been a part of soap operas, particularly women's health issues, such as breast cancer and systemic lupus erythematosus.

Sexual content has been a controversial mainstay of soap operas since the 1970s. The frequency of sexual behaviors on daytime serials is greater than that on prime-time television. According to a 1996 content analysis by Bradley Greenberg and Rick Busselle, sexual portrayals substantially increased during the 1980s, slightly decreased by the early 1990s, and increased again in the mid-1990s. As Katherine Heintz-Knowles reported in a 1996 Kaiser Family Foundation study, until the mid-1990s, talk about sex was more prevalent than actual depictions of sexual behavior. Although early studies found that consequences for sexual behavior were rarely shown, discussions about planning for and the consequences of sexual behavior increased in the 1990s. Yet, even with the increase, those discussions remain infrequent. Some studies have found that a majority of the portrayals of sexual behaviors are socially responsible because they are in the context of a healthy, committed relationship. Other studies have found that messages about sex are contradictory.

A 1983 book by Muriel Cantor and Suzanne Pingree reported that in the early 1980s, violence on soap operas was less frequent than in prime time. In addition, it was mainly verbal, between men and women, and between family members or lovers. In contrast, in prime time it was mostly between men who were strangers, and it was physical. Soap opera depictions of rape that start off as socially responsible and then send mixed messages when the rapist is redeemed, have drawn a lot of fire from critics. Extreme physical aggression that is rewarded in relationships has also been criticized, although aggressive sexual contact has decreased, according to research.

Although soap operas are shown all over the world, the content is not necessarily all the same. Soap operas in North America focus more on the rich, whereas soap operas in Great Britain focus more on the working class. Soap operas in Latin American (where they are called "telenovelas") are used as educational tools for issues such as family planning. The introduction of soap operas from North America and Latin America prompted several countries around the world to produce their own serials. These serials, however, are not simply copies; they reflect more of their own cultural values and social norms. Content is not the only difference in soap operas produced around the world. In Latin America, Japan, and China, the serials are often finite, even though they run for long periods of time.

Robert Allen (1995) claims that content analyses of soap operas are meaningless because any potential implication of daytime serials must be derived from the entirety of the serial (something that cannot occur until a show is cancelled) rather than in small chunks. Allen and others have also argued that the structural characteristics that make soap operas "open" allow viewers to make multiple interpretations of story content. According to this reasoning, in order to understand how viewers might be affected by soap operas, it is necessary to understand the interpretations that they make. Research from this perspective has proposed that women are empowered by watching soap operas. Moreover, it has found that how viewers identify with and perceive characters has an influence on how they are affected by those characters and their actions. Finally, it concludes that some viewers are affected by the more obvious message of the content, whereas others negotiate their own meanings for the content and are therefore affected differently.

Traditional research about the effect of soap operas on viewers usually looks at the amount of time that viewers spend watching soap operas in relation to how viewers might be affected by soap opera content. This research has found that viewers who watch a large amount of soap operas overestimate the number of divorces, illegitimate children, pregnancies, extramarital affairs, and cases of sexually transmitted diseases in the real world, as well as the amount of crime. Other research has found that women who are depressed spend more time watching soap operas than others; viewers who watch a large amount of soap operas believe single mothers live a much better life than they really do; and soap operas can effectively promote health concerns and practices when tied to a public-service announcement.

Bibliography

Allen, Robert C., ed. (1995). To Be Continued: Soap Operas Around the World. London: Routledge.

Brown, Mary Ellen. (1994). Soap Opera and Women's Talk: The Pleasure of Resistance. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Cantor, Muriel, and Pingree, Suzanne. (1983). The Soap Opera. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.

Cassata, Mary, and Skill, Thomas. (1983). Life on Daytime Television. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

Frentz, Suzanne, ed. (1992). Staying Tuned: Contemporary Soap Opera Criticism. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press.

Greenberg, Bradley S., and Busselle, Rick W. (1996). "Soap Operas and Sexual Activity: A Decade Later." Journal of Communication 46:153-160.

Heintz-Knowles, Katherine. (1996). Sexual Activity on Daytime Soap Operas: A Content Analysis of Five Weeks of Television Programming. Menlo Park, CA: Kaiser Family Foundation.

Klingle, Renee Storm, and Aune, Krystyna Strzyzewski. (1994). "Effects of a Daytime Serial and a Public Service Announcement in Promoting Cognitions, Attitudes, and Behaviors Related to Bone-Marrow Testing." Health Communication 6(3):225-245.

Larson, Mary Strom. (1996). "Sex Roles and Soap Operas: What Adolescents Learn About Single Motherhood." Sex Roles 35:97-110.

Larson, Stephanie Greco. (1991). "Television's Mixed Messages: Sexual Content on All My Children." Communication Quarterly 39(2):156-163.

Lowry, Dennis T., and Towles, David E. (1989). "Soap Opera Portrayals of Sex, Contraception, and Sexually Transmitted Diseases." Journal of Communication 39(2):76-83.

Modleski, Tania. (1983). "The Rhythms of Reception: Daytime Television and Women's Work." In Regarding Television: Critical Approaches, ed. E. Ann Kaplan. Fredrick, MD: University Publications of America.

Museum of Television and Radio. (1997). Worlds Without End: The Art and History of the Soap Opera. New York: Harry N. Abrams.

RenÉe A. Botta

Encyclopedia of Communication and Information