Conventions of a soap opera

Here is a list of common conventions in most soap operas

Family life – most soaps if not all are family orientated and all these families together build up the whole community of the soap.

Community –soaps tend to revolve around a community of people living amongst each other and usually the problems occur between the families that make up this community.

Central meeting point – In all soaps there is a central meeting point such as a Pub and this central meeting point will be used to make the characters within the soap interact with each other and this is how the stories are developed.

Setting – all soaps are set in a certain area such as a street, a cul-de-sac or a square and this way everyone living in that area will get to know each other which again helps to drive the plot.

Theme tune – all soaps have a theme tune which becomes recognisable, these theme tunes are usually played just before the soap is about to start and just as the soap ends.  The theme tunes help viewers and listeners to recognise a certain piece of music and relate it to the soap.

Realistic – most soaps carry a theme of realism which allows the audience to follow stories and relate it to their own life experiences which keeps the audience enticed and anxious to watch again and again to see what is going to happen next.  Most of the problems that occur in soap operas convey a solution on how to solve these problems the correct way and this is another reason that keeps the viewers watching as they can find help with maybe problems of their own.

Cliff-hanger – there are many ways that soaps keep the audience watching and one of these ways are cliff-hangers.  Cliff-hangers keep the audience excited and left wanting more which will encourage them to tune in the next time the soap is on.  Also these cliff-hangers are at the end of the soap, but there are also many mini cliff-hangers throughout every episode and this keeps the viewer tuned in and keeps them excited and not bored.

Character – in every soap there are certain characters such as, a female matriarch (Peggy Mitchell), a boss or business owner (Phil Mitchell), a poor chav family (Bianca's family), a feisty young woman (Lucy), a group of teenagers and usually a couple of crazy characters.


I researched the conventions of soap operas and these were my findings. i felt the next necessary step was to analyse a whole episode of a soap opera in order to see exactly how these conventions are used