Soap Opera Target Audience

Name: Jonathan SheehanCandidate Number: 2127Center Name: St. Andrew’s Catholic SchoolCenter Number: 64135

OCR Media Studies – A2 Level

Unit G324: Advanced Portfolio

Trailer 1 - EastEnders

Socio Economic NeedsThe viewers for this soap opera would stereotypically be placed in C1 C2 and D which are those in the professions which range from working in offices to being in the manual labour industry. This would be due to the same type of characteristics between the characters and the individuals watching the text. Many of the characters belong in the working class as shown with their lifestyle and attitude to life which then attracts people who are from the same class as they feel as if they can relate and feel welcome with the same types of issues and life events.

PsychographicsOn the whole, viewers of this text would have a stereotypically normal lifestyle, working class, also with the soap influencing a few users in education. Many of the characters in the text make poor lifestyle decisions such as drugs or murder which may have an impact on the audience which may be pressured into doing the same thing. However the soap can feature about issues which can be surprisingly helpful such as mental health which can influence some views to seek help and improve their lifestyle. Usually when these special episodes are aired these will be a contact number which again is influencing viewers to make positive decisions.

Hartley's 7 Subjectives

• Age: There is a wide age range for this soap as there arte so many different characters of different ages, I would state that the range was 15-70 due to the inclusion of school children, working class people, teenagers and the elderly. The soap has a history of being on television for 30 years so has built up a wide audience.

• Gender: Rebecca Feasey (2007) stated that:“…the home, the family, domestic tribulations and the strong woman, and as such, it has long been said to appeal to the female viewer” However with EastEnders, there is a wide range of content for both sexes such as issues with both men and women which would encourage me to state that the soap offers both sexes an equal opportunity to enjoy the text.• Class: Due to the text featuring a low to middle class this would

reflect the same class watching the soap.• Ethnicity: People of all ethnicity's are featured in EastEnders which

demonstrates a multi ethnic society. There is a Muslim family, black and white individuals.

Katz uses & Gratifications Theory • Personal Identification: This would be the impact of the characters influencing the

audience members to make the same decisions at them for example teen pregnancy.

• Personal Relationship: Many of the characters experience real life events such as adultery or sexuality issues which may influence members of the audience to create a personal relationship with them influencing them to watch the soap even more.

• Inform and Educate: The multi-stranded narrative contain a lot of educational content, not specifically anything that would be found on a school syllabus but life skills such as the basic ones of being a good personal and the difference between right and wrong.

EastEnders is a soap that features on BBC1 and is on 4 times weekly, either starting at 7:30PM or 8:00PM which are prime time hours. This is a time which exceptionally young children are usually asleep which is beneficial as the content is not appropriate for young children. The watershed time in The UK is at 9PM, protecting children from harmful material on TV and radio is one of Ofcom's most important duties. However, EastEnders is not played after this time which means that their content is not inappropriate enough to the degree where children are advised not to watch it.

Sources: http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/Documents/short/bucking1.html

Trailer 2 - HollyoaksSocio Economic NeedsThe typical audience for this soap would be students which is category E. This is due to the fact that most of the characters are students and the issues faced are those that would be from students such as drug problems and teen pregnancy's.

PsychographicsStereotypically, students at school would be watching the soap and could be influenced by some of the content involved. However I would say that no one would be influenced in a negative way as the outcomes are generally positive and many of the characters find themselves and ‘see light at the end of the tunnel.’

Hartley's 7 Subjectivities• Age: Those watching would stereotypically be 15-25. The content is still quite

explicit however relevant for audience members 15 and upwards. 25 year olds can still relate with the issues and narratives as they are young enough however any older and the stories would not be particularly relevant.

• Gender: Issues that are brought up in the soap reflect both genders, foe example sexuality, drugs and transgender have no gender specific quality.

• Class: The class is particularly aimed lower ‘E’ because of the wide range of diversity in the content and that upper class individuals are not particularly students and would stereotypically enjoy a text with more mature narratives.

• Ethnicity: The diversity of ethnicities are not as wide in this soap as EastEnders however, both black and white characters are involved with Irish and Scottish heritage as well. The soap does not particularly feature any religious activity.Katz uses & Gratifications Theory

• Personal Identification: Many of these students are quite rebellious so the audience may see a side to them in some of the students, however other students in the text and adults are rather professional. Audience members may be able to benefit from the mistakes seen on the soap.

• Personal Relationship: Many issues such as transgender and sexuality issues are explores in this soap which will in most cases help a lot of students to find themselves and give them advice to seek help.

• Inform and Educate: Many family issues are presented within the soap which many can learn from and hopefully overcome, Hollyoaks seem to create these multi stranded narratives in order to help their audience as they feature these issues a lot within their storylines.

Here Hollyoaks is appealing to its younger audience by offering exam help which students can use social media in order to discover this help and contact the soap directly.

This is demonstrating that the soap offers a wide range of content hat would be able to suit the desires of all types of people, for example here this would not be stereotypically a normal style.