Socio, Economic and Cultural Impact of Soap Operas on Home Makers(A Study in Andhra Pradesh)

Abstract

Soap operas have gained huge popularity all over the world and women are an important component of these soap operas. Contemporary soap operas’ content are mostly dominated by family dramas and house-hold fights. In the process of attracting more female audiences, soaps are presenting values that are different from reality. Various studies conducted on the influence of soap operas on viewer’ attitudes, indicate the growing popularity of soaps all over the world but at the same time it is also important to study the way the content is portrayed in these soaps, particularly in India where socio-cultural values influence the lives of individuals. Portrayal of negative content in soaps can influence the society in a negative way. Socio-cultural values are mostly depicted negatively in Telugu soap operas of Andhra Pradesh. Therefore, this study seeks to re-examine the portrayal of socio, cultural and economic values in Telugu soap operas and their influence on the housewives of Andhra Pradesh. This study examined the content of four Telugu soap operas by using the content analysis method and also conducted a survey in order to know homemakers’ opinions on the patterns of portrayal of values and ideologies in Telugu soap operas. Six districts from Andhra Pradesh were randomly selected for survey with a sample size of 300 homemakers. The study is based on the Cultivation Theory. The findings obtained through content analysis of Telugu soaps suggest that the socio, cultural and economic values in majority of serials are portrayed negatively; soaps are mainly focusing on promoting the ideology of radical feminism in the portrayal of its female characters. The data obtained through the survey indicates that soap opera audiences are not passive, they are critical about the content particularly the portrayal of the socio-cultural values and viewers are not influenced by such negative portrayal but a perception shared by a selection is that there is a likelihood of some audience being influenced by such portrayal.