my essay thing
just finished a pretty awfull soap opera thing for northumbria university, not really sure wether its that good. the assignment was write an essay, of no more than 1000 words. on a film or television programme of your choice. you should be aware that this peice of work is used to help us assess your potential for intellectual engagement with media texts : for that reason, your perspective in the work should not be merely descriptive, rather we expect you approach to be critical and analylitical.......
Eastenders.
Eastenders is a soap opera which is shown on bbc1 the programme is good because it depicts everyday issues in a realistic manner.
Eastenders is an open text; it provides the audience with the opportunity to respond to it in their own way. Eastenders is extremely beneficial to media institutions; this could be the way in which it is firmly established among the channel it is shown on (bbc1) it is used as the flagship for bbc1, used to advertise and is the programme which everyone knows is shown on that certain channel.
Eastenders shows a way of educating and informing the audience that not a lot of other programmes do, it does this by using social based issues in the storylines, this increases the realism factor of it, the debates are explored through the characterisation to enable the audience to make their own judgments. Eastenders deals with social issues in a realistic way, because of the big audience it has. It could be said that people’s eyes are often opened up to the true extent/meaning of certain social issues such as aids (the mark fowler storyline) or domestic violence (Trevor and little Moe). If they do not deal with the storylines in a realistic way then it undermines and also weakens the realism within the soap.
As there is such a big range of characters in Eastenders, there is always a character/storyline going on, which the audience can relate to, also Eastenders has a cultural mix, has families from all ethnic minorities this shows that it is not culturally biased and is multi racial. Because it shows a range of storylines which may affect people from certain cultures more.
The way the characters are presented to the audience also makes the audience react differently, because their appearance tells the audience a lot about them, also because they are wearing ‘common’ clothes, which the viewers could easily attain. Also Eastenders is shot in a place we all know well, (London) we all can get a better sense of realism from this because of the environment they live in, Albert square has a pub, café, market area, memorial bench. All things which you would expect to see in the real world.
Eastenders shares a special relationship, as most soap do with other areas of the media, such as woman’s weekly magazines. These magazines publish storylines before they are shown on the television, as a taster for what’s to come. Magazines use the soap operas as major selling points, they realise how popular Eastenders is, so they publish lots of stories about it. Eastenders was originally targeted at working class women, who were at home doing the housework, and would then tune into watch the soap as a ‘relaxation’. And likewise the magazines such as woman’s weekly are targeted at working class women, again as a relaxation.
Eastenders serves as a way in which viewers can escape their own lives, and view other peoples.
The fact the camera shots used are mainly close ups adds to the realism feel because it feels as though you are looking directly at them and talking to them, rather than looking at them through a long shot, because when you talk to someone in real life, you do look at them in a close up.
Eastenders will often have a ‘5-nighter’ where an episode is shown every night of the week, this is often when it is a major storyline, 5-nighters appear when the major storyline has reached or is about to, reach its climax, each episode ends in a cliff-hanger in order to heighten the drama, a 5-nighter enables the action to and emotions to unfold in a lot more detail than in the usual 2-3 showings a week. Also similar to the 5-nighter are ‘tie - in’s and ‘spin - off’s’ Eastenders just this Christmas released a DVD showing the ‘Slater girls’ antics as they went out for their sister Kat’s hen night. The only people who buy this are usually the ‘die hard’ fans; this is because they feel as though they are getting more out of the soap than the other ‘normal’ viewers.
It serves as a kind of reward for their loyalty to the soap.
if anybody reads this and thinks of any thing i could add to it to make it better, or change some to make it better. please comment and say, because i am pretty awfull at writing these kinds of things. would be much appreciated. thanks.
Eastenders.
Eastenders is a soap opera which is shown on bbc1 the programme is good because it depicts everyday issues in a realistic manner.
Eastenders is an open text; it provides the audience with the opportunity to respond to it in their own way. Eastenders is extremely beneficial to media institutions; this could be the way in which it is firmly established among the channel it is shown on (bbc1) it is used as the flagship for bbc1, used to advertise and is the programme which everyone knows is shown on that certain channel.
Eastenders shows a way of educating and informing the audience that not a lot of other programmes do, it does this by using social based issues in the storylines, this increases the realism factor of it, the debates are explored through the characterisation to enable the audience to make their own judgments. Eastenders deals with social issues in a realistic way, because of the big audience it has. It could be said that people’s eyes are often opened up to the true extent/meaning of certain social issues such as aids (the mark fowler storyline) or domestic violence (Trevor and little Moe). If they do not deal with the storylines in a realistic way then it undermines and also weakens the realism within the soap.
As there is such a big range of characters in Eastenders, there is always a character/storyline going on, which the audience can relate to, also Eastenders has a cultural mix, has families from all ethnic minorities this shows that it is not culturally biased and is multi racial. Because it shows a range of storylines which may affect people from certain cultures more.
The way the characters are presented to the audience also makes the audience react differently, because their appearance tells the audience a lot about them, also because they are wearing ‘common’ clothes, which the viewers could easily attain. Also Eastenders is shot in a place we all know well, (London) we all can get a better sense of realism from this because of the environment they live in, Albert square has a pub, café, market area, memorial bench. All things which you would expect to see in the real world.
Eastenders shares a special relationship, as most soap do with other areas of the media, such as woman’s weekly magazines. These magazines publish storylines before they are shown on the television, as a taster for what’s to come. Magazines use the soap operas as major selling points, they realise how popular Eastenders is, so they publish lots of stories about it. Eastenders was originally targeted at working class women, who were at home doing the housework, and would then tune into watch the soap as a ‘relaxation’. And likewise the magazines such as woman’s weekly are targeted at working class women, again as a relaxation.
Eastenders serves as a way in which viewers can escape their own lives, and view other peoples.
The fact the camera shots used are mainly close ups adds to the realism feel because it feels as though you are looking directly at them and talking to them, rather than looking at them through a long shot, because when you talk to someone in real life, you do look at them in a close up.
Eastenders will often have a ‘5-nighter’ where an episode is shown every night of the week, this is often when it is a major storyline, 5-nighters appear when the major storyline has reached or is about to, reach its climax, each episode ends in a cliff-hanger in order to heighten the drama, a 5-nighter enables the action to and emotions to unfold in a lot more detail than in the usual 2-3 showings a week. Also similar to the 5-nighter are ‘tie - in’s and ‘spin - off’s’ Eastenders just this Christmas released a DVD showing the ‘Slater girls’ antics as they went out for their sister Kat’s hen night. The only people who buy this are usually the ‘die hard’ fans; this is because they feel as though they are getting more out of the soap than the other ‘normal’ viewers.
It serves as a kind of reward for their loyalty to the soap.
if anybody reads this and thinks of any thing i could add to it to make it better, or change some to make it better. please comment and say, because i am pretty awfull at writing these kinds of things. would be much appreciated. thanks.