Coronation Street

Soap Opera Genre

This genre is particular popular within people who are middle aged and older, the age group I would allocate the soap opera genre is 30-60. Examples of this genre are Coronation Street, Eastenders, Emmerdale, Doctors and Hollyoaks.

Format
 This format of genre is broadcasted all time around, however soap operas are not shown on weekends they usually have different schedules through the week. Coronation Street is usually on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays so the narrative is easy to catch up on. In soap operas, multiple characters have their own small problems but there is always one problem being kept secret or a disaster to be unfolded that will have an effect on everybody. For example, in Coronation Streets a few years back, there was a horrific tram event which affect many characters in the soap opera. Often when the problems finally come out they are not resolved they either continue or the characters go away in the show and it is forgotten about.




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Appeals
Coronation Street appeals the audience through personal identification to the working class particularly as the life that is portrayed is quite common through their way of working all day and earning their own money. The soap is set in Manchester which is particularly working class area and shown at the opening sequence is terrace houses and a random cat. In addition, Coronation Street is only shown on television on weekdays which appeals to a lot of adults who usually work jobs that have weekends off such as office and admin jobs so this can be used as escapism from their work life. Therefore Coronation Street can be used for entertainment. Moreover, shock tactics such as murders and disasters happen which keeps the audience intrigued in the storyline. The audience are also appealed through social interaction as the biggest audience group is mainstream so they like to familiarise themselves and they do this by discussing the events of what happens which allows the audience to have a topic of discussion, encouraging communication. This show is conventional as it displays usual, ordinary life and this is what the audience expect from the show as they want to predict the outcomes of situations occurring.

Target Audience
These type of shows have one main audience which is the mainstreamer, the mainstreamer want to feel comfort and be able to familiarise themselves with the characters and this show lives up to its need. It provides similarities such as the working life which is quite boring and repetitive therefore the mainstream are appealed to this. The lifestyle category which is targeted is the rebels as they ant to fit into the world and by watching a well known soap which is easily relatable, allows them to see how to differ with the way they live their life.

Opening Sequence



The visuals start off with the area being shown and random people walking about, this implies that the show will be relatable. No characters are used in the opening sequence, which suggests that there is a lot of characters and this may be due to it being a soap. The setting looks quite ordinary (nothing special) as it is just streets shown and a postbox which tells the audience that this is a simple show about everyday life. The camera shots are often blurred and show tracking into what it wants to be shown which portrays how the show provides mystery but also an interest to what could happen in the episode. The sound used is quite old fashioned and the pace of the whole scene is quite slow which suggests that the soap can be considered as calm and relaxed. Themes portrayed in this is realism but also mystery due to so many things happening and not being able to predict it all.

Setting
Usually soaps are set in a rural area, places such as a town or a village. Usually the settings are not well known which makes the show unique. This is significant as many people live in an rural are so its easy for the audience to identify with. The set is a studio.

Technical Codes
Popular shots used in soaps is two person shot due to the events and situations in the episodes, normally in a typical episode dramas are likely to happen within a couple or more so these shots are used frequently. In addition, close up shots are used frequently because of different storylines, usually something bad happens so the characters facial expressions are portrayed to show the audience fear, sadness but also sometimes happiness. Hardly any non diegetic music is used as the editors want the show to feel as involved and make the show feel very realistic. Editing used the most is usually relaxed during the day however, when a disaster happens such as the tram crash it suddenly speeds up to create tension.



Characters & Representations 
Typical archetypes represented in soaps is the lovable loser such as Chesney who is too sweet and lets everybody tell him what to do and basically walk all over him. Another archetype is the tart with a heart, which is the character Eva as she used to care mostly about her appearance although she does, she met someone recently called Aidan who she believes too love and wants to start a future with. Another stereotype in soaps is the business man which divides between Mr Connor and Aidan since they took over the factory, these usually think that they know whats best and usually believe to have a lot of wealth. Also, we have the mess up kind of guy which is a character who constantly makes mistakes and doesn't learn from them, in Coronation Street this is Peter Barlow due to his actions with cheating, he cheated on Leanne with Carla, then cheated on Carla with Tina, now has cheated on Toyah. There is always the typical, overcrowded family which all live under one roof which is the Platts in Coronation Street, there is roughly 6 people living in one small house. They tend to argue frequently and fall out with each other, but always make up shortly afterwards for their own sake of living together.

Narrative
As soaps are on going all year round, they never do have proper endings due to the problems being released but also solved so quickly. The encoders what to show so much reality as possible, but they do this with so many different characters so they can identify themselves with it therefore Todorovs theory cannot be applied as there is not ending equilibrium. The soap always wants the audience to make predictions through using enigma codes such as 'whats going to happen in the next episode?' so they leave each episode on an almost feel of cliff hanger but slightly less dramatic.