SOAP OPERA QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS

 

As soap operas are aimed at all age groups, we ensured we gave our questionnaire to people of different ages to find out what they expect to see from a soap opera/soap opera trailer.  In answer to the first question 'What is your favourite soap?', we discovered that teenagers favoured Hollyoaks, Neighbours and Eastenders.  This could be because of the large majority of the characters being youthful compared to soaps such as Coronation Street and Emmerdale.  Apart from the Neighbours watchers, this young audience were fairly reliable watchers of their soap; circling the options, "All the time, I even Sky+ the episodes and watch them 5 times over" and "I never miss an episode - i'm dedicated".  Oppositely, the teenage people who favoured Neighbours circled the options, "If there's nothing else on, I'll watch it" and "Every now and then".  Obviously, they aren't very bothered about the happenings in the soap and later confirmed this by saying they only watch the soap when they are free, suggesting they do not prioritise the soap highly by making time in their schedule to watch the episode.  A middle-aged woman chose Coronation Street as her favourite soap.  She isn't dedicated and only watches it "Every now and then", however this fits the stereotype that Coronation Street is a soap for older people compared with soaps supposedly for the younger generation like Hollyoaks, Neighbours and Eastenders.

Interestingly, the two non-dedicated Neighbours watchers both hadn't watched a soap after seeing it advertised on television, whereas everyone else that filled in our questionnaire had, of whom were more dedicated to their soaps.  This suggests that avid soap watchers want to watch new programs/soaps and would seek them out, unlike people who only watch television when it is convenient to.  Those viewers who did watch a soap after seeing it advertised did so because the trailer captured their attention for some reason. The more mature, middle-aged woman began watching the soap she'd seen advertised again because of the return of her 2 favourite characters, Kat and Alfie Moon from Eastenders, that were previously in the soap when she used to watch it.  The younger people said reasons such as: "It seemed really exciting because there was a cliff hanger"; "Dramatic music" and because of "Certain characters".

Both Neighbours watchers favourite character was Toadie.  They said this was the case as he was a funny character and "is quirky and interesting"; connoting they watch the soap for entertainment and to escape from their own life.  The other people that completed our questionnaire gave reasons that suggested they would like to know the characters personally connoting that they would be their idyllic friends and family in life; they get emotionally hooked and involved  in the soap opera.  The middle-aged woman's reasoning behind her favourite character, Alfie Moon, was "I have an embarrassing crush on Shane Richie and I like to think he is really just like Alfie".  This backs up the theory of the idealised life created inside the viewers mind.

The avid soap-watchers said they had watched a new soap after seeing it advertised on television, unlike the viewers who watch Neighbours if "there's nothing else on TV".  This suggests that the Neighbours watchers may not have seen a soap opera trailer at all as they do not watch as much television compared with the dedicated soap watchers. 
-Lauren Tween