What is Media

By Rylan Hollingworth

What Is Soap Opera?

A Television programme with deals with many challenges and problems as in the real world from day to day.

What is a documentary?

Is Television or Film based. These provide factual support on a particular subject.

What is an advert?

Is mostly radio and television based, which appear between actual programmes. These help promote a certain product to persuade you to purchase it.

Key Conventions

Soap Opera – Catchy theme tune, a few main locations where everything happens, cliff hangers, based on day to day life.

Documentary – Voiceover, archive footage, interviews, sounds (non- diegetic), factual footage/ information.

Adverts – Brand logo, slogan , colour scheme, SFX, camera angles.

History

Soap Opera – The term ‘soap opera’ comes from when they were aired on the radio, they were sponsored by soap brands.

Documentary – In the pre-1900’s people used to capture single-shot moments, e.g., factory workers leaving work. These were called ‘actuality’ films. The word ‘documentary’ was not coined until 1926.

Advert – Commercial messages have been found in the ruins of Pompeii and ancient Arabia ,dating all the way back to even the Egyptians.

Examples

Soap Operas – Eastenders, Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Casualty, Hollyoaks.

Documentaries – Blackfish, Educating Yorkshire, Louis Theroux, Panorama, Horizon.

Adverts – Coke, Cadbury’s, Andrex, Evian, L'Oreal, Sky Broadband, EE.

Viewing Figures

Soap Operas –Coronation Street 2015 – Lowest figure, 5,170,000, 20th February. Highest figure, 8,240,000, 19th January

Documentary – Educating Yorkshire got an average audience of 2.62 million in one night.

Prominent ActorsSoap Opera – Michelle Keegan, Kym Marsh, Craig Charles, Danny Dyer, Adam Woodyatt, June Brown.

Documentaries – David Attenborough, Louis Theroux, Ross Kemp

Advert – David Tennant, Cheryl, Mo Farrah, Johnny Vegas

Costs

Soap Opera – the BBC revealed that a year's-worth of EastEnders costs £29.9 million.

Documentary – The documentary Blackfish only cost $76,000 to make.

Advert – The Cadbury Gorilla advert cost an estimates £700,000