Soap Opera/Telenovela

Abstract

‘Soap operas’ are daytime serials with a dramatic content aimed primarily at a female audience. The soap opera emerged in the US radio industry of the early 1930s when the advertising agencies of the soap, toiletry, and foodstuff industries took on the role of developing programs that could attract a female audience. When the last daytime serials left radio in the early 1960s, they were already an established form of television programming and advertisers continued to produce soap operas after the transition to television. The central elements of the serials' content usually gravitate towards issues such as love, family, intimate relationships and other domestic concerns. Nevertheless, the genre has been characterized by a process of diversification, in which family conflicts are colored by social and political issues. ‘Telenovela’ is a term used throughout Latin America to designate the melodramatic serials that became the most popular programs of the television industries of the region, dominating prime-time and commanding the highest advertising rates. They have been exported to every continent in the world. Although telenovelas have a similar history and common features when compared to soap operas, they are two distinct genres.