I watched ten minutes of an EastEnders episode, screened on the 17/06/2011. During this time I recorded some data concerning gender, ethnicity, age, locations and scene count. Here are my results:
Gender
13 Males
13 Females
Both genders have equal appearances throughout the episode and are represented equally. This makes the show appealing both to male and female audiences. However, during the episode the women seemed to be more powerful shown by the manipulation of men and taking roles in arguments.
Age
1 Child
8 Teenagers
6 Young adults
10 Older adults
1 Senior
I watched EastEnders when I was younger and it used to feature more elderly people. The feedback now suggests that perhaps it is trying to attract a new, younger audience, highlighted by the increased numbers of teenagers featuring in the show. There is still a good mix of ages, however, and as a result this allows a broader range of stories to be performed. For example, a single child could be included into a paedophilia storyline. Teenagers also took part in storylines that are humorous and cheesy. This applies to mainly a teenager audience. An example of this story line is a dance battle between the male and female teenagers. This petty dispute can resemble childish stereotypes of gender rivalry. The young adults take on the roles that include 'night life' (clubbing, bars, drinking, sex, etc) because they are still in their youth (like the teenagers) but they are legally old enough to explore this night life. This age group also attracts a younger audience of teenagers and young adults. However, their story lines include violence, drugs, alcohol and other negative plots which is often imitated by todays younger generation.
Ethnicity
2 black people featured in the show.
7 people with middle eastern origin featured in the show.
17 caucasian people featured in the show.
The verisimilitude of the soap opera, reflects true multi-cultural London. London is home of many different ethnic groups, and most soap operas show this. However, percentage wise, EastEnders is wrong. According to data collected in 2009 there are more mixed race and black people than caucasian. The caucasian percentage only makes up for 47% of the population in London. Applying this to EastEnders to get a realistic verisimilitude of Ethnicity they should have:
12 caucasian people featured in the show.
14 blacks and mixed race people featured in the show.
Locations
Traditionally soap operas try to represent real life, otherwise known as verisimilitude. So it is important that locations can apply to the average persons life.
Outside locations appeared twice.
Kitchens appeared just once.
Living rooms and dinning rooms appeared four times.
Cafes appeared once.
Salon appeared once.
A dance studio also featured though this is just a once off.
Though it did not feature in the first ten minutes of this episode most soap operas, including EastEnders, have a pub which is usually well known by the audience (Eg. The Queen Vic)
The scene count in ten minutes was eleven. Though only further research will reveal if this is the norm of a soap opera.
No comments:
Post a Comment