Soaps: docu-soaps
A pluralist society, of competing ideologies and
varying, changing defi nitions of truth and mean-
ing, is acknowledged by social action analysis,
as are the complex influences at work upon
media and media audiences and the interaction
between them. See functionalist (mode of
media analysis); marxist (mode of media
analysis); pluralism. See also topic guide
under research methods.
Social action broadcasting A broad term
describing radio and TV programming that
sets out not only to analyse current social
problems and issues and bring them to public
attention, but to encourage people to take action
in response to what they have heard or seen. In
the UK such programmes range from the BBC’s
adult literacy series On the Move or Crimewatch
UK to Capital Radio’s Helpline.
Th e culinary broadcaster Jamie Oliver exem-
plifi ed this social action with a Channel 4 series
in 2005 set in Kidbrooke School, East London:
he went into partnership with the school dinners
manager with the aim of encouraging pupils to
eat more varied and nutritious food. Th e series
was popular, prompting government action
to bring about healthier eating in schools, and
gave social action broadcasting added status and
impetus.
Social anthropology Th e study of the evolution
of human communities and cultures.
Social class See class.
Social infl uence theory See identification.
Socialization Th e shaping of human behaviour
through experience in and knowledge of certain
social situations: the process by which indi-
viduals are made aware of the expectations
others have of their behaviour; by which they
acquire the norms, mores, values and beliefs
of a social group or society; and by which the
culture of a social group or society is transmit-
ted. Socialization continues throughout life as
individuals change their roles and membership
of social groups.
There exist what are commonly known as
agents of socialization. In modern industrial
societies, the family, school and friendship
groups are thought to be the most signifi cant
agents in shaping the behaviour of the individual.
Th e mass media are also agents of socialization
and are considered to be particularly infl uential
in transmitting awareness and expectations
concerning a wide range of societal behaviour.
Individuals and societies may undergo radical
change; if so, re-socialization may occur – the
peeling away of learned patterns of behaviour
and their replacement with quite diff erent ones.Franco. An era which, to a modern generation,
had seemed a closed book, closed off by offi cial
reluctance to examine a past of terror follow-
ing the Spanish Civil War, had the curtains of
forgetfulness drawn back; all at once, the nation
focused on its past as never before.
Elizabeth Nash, writing from Madrid, in a
news report entitled ‘Spain gripped by soap set
in dark years of Franco’s rule’ (UK Independent,
9 August 2002), says ‘Th e series has caught the
imagination of all generations of Spaniards: those
who remember Franco relish the authenticity of
every detail; youngsters who never knew him
are fascinated by this window on their otherwise
silent and invisible history.’ See empowerment;
feminism; gender; gendered genre; gossip
networks; narrative.
▶Mary Ellen Brown, Soap Opera and Women’s Talk
(Sage, 1994); Robert C. Allen, To Be Continued: Soap
Operas Around the World (Routledge, 1995); Ian Ang,
Watching Dallas: Soap Operas and the Melodramatic
Imagination (Methuen, 1985; Routledge paperback,
1996); Charlotte Brunsdon, Screen Tastes: Soap
Opera to Satellite Dish (Routledge, 1997); Dorothy
Hobson, Soap Opera (Wiley-Blackwell, 2003); Lesley
Henderson, Social Issues in Television Fiction (Edin-
burgh University Press, 2007); Sam Ford, Abigail De
Kosnik and C. Lee Harrington, eds, Th e Survival of
Soap Opera: Transformations for a New Media Era
(University of Mississippi Press, 2010).
Soaps: docu-soaps Popular variant of the
fi ctional soap, presenting documentary series in
the fashion of soaps with the same emphasis on
characters the audience can readily identify with,
real-life situations intercut with parallel situa-
tions in the typical manner of soaps. Examples
in the UK have been Airport, Driving School and
Hotel.
Such programmes have tended to supplant
serious, probing documentaries and are largely
the result of the intense pressures of competi-
tion. Their fascination lies in the actuality of
the mini-dramas and their sense of immediacy.
Where docu-soaps are diff erent from fi ctional
soaps is in the freedom the ‘characters’ are given
to comment on the mini-dramas that fi ll their
working days.
Social action (mode of media analysis)
Stresses the role of the individual as a potent
force within a dynamic social system. It sees
confl ict as central to the process of change, in
particular conflict between groups seeking
infl uence, power and status. Social action analy-
sis concentrates on the media as a special group
both reflecting and involved in the conflicts
that concern social change, or resistance to it.