Why Are Soap Operas So Popular?

• which originated from the American radio serial dramas of the 1930's.
• undemanding nature of soap opera can be seen as a contributory factor to the genre's popularity.
• soap opera's concern with the everyday lives of everyday people and their problems, big and small, appears to be one of the main reasons why this genre is so popular.
• "when I sit down to watch, I belong to the family in a way...I can enter into all the characters because they're so familiar" (Ang 1985).
• viewers enjoy forming this kind of participatory 'relationship' with the characters.
• parasocial relationships.
• gain pleasure.
• catharsis.
• based on personal experience, it is evident that viewers often use the behaviour of a character in order to justify