Multinational Eastenders

Multinational Eastenders.

Task 1

Eastenders is shown in UK, New Zealand, America, Holland, Africa, Canada ands other various european countries. We found 79 countries in 10 minutes. We didn’t expect to find this many countries, because we didn’t realise that this many countries would be familiar with the british cultures. Yes, for example the vast amount of african nations, that may or may not use english as one of their national languages.

Task 2

We believe it is shown in other countries because it gives other nationalities an insight into our national values. The types of people that watch Eastenders tend to be at opposite ends of the cultural spectrum. They may find it interesting to see what different stereotypes and vocal messages the show puts across about the british culture.

Task 3

It is watched on their national terrestrial television channels. It is watched on various international channels, such as ABC TV, TVNZ and Prime. It is available on websites in other countries for examples 4od can be viewed internationally. You can watch it on your tv, computer, laptop, phone, mp4 and tablet. Yes because not all of the countries speak the English language. 

Extension Activity

Britain is represented as a working class, politically influenced unstable country. From watching this you would know that the British like to socialize in specific meeting areas for example the pub (Queen Vic). 

Areas to Consider

There is a wide majority of age groups ranging to newborns to the elderly people. There are a vast amount of religions represented in Eastenders due to the increase in multinational cultures migrating to the UK. There are a wide range of ethnicities and nationalities represented in Eastenders such as British Africans, British Asians and British Caribbean (Patrick Truman). There are a wide range of jobs mainly lower class due to the characters surroundings. The character’s happiness varies due to unfortunate events which happens in the programme. They go to the pub to socialize with friends. 

Cultural changes interview

Q. How has british culture changed in the last quarter of a century?

A. British culture has changed considerable over the last quarter of a century, in terms of culture, we can see a very common  examples of culture change in modern day society, one notable example of a cultural change in society is that the media focus has moved it's attention from the monarchy to celebrities. Nowadays you will rarely see articles on the royal family included in the first six pages of a newspaper. In recent times, more attention has been given to smaller minority cultural groups in soap operas, this is due to growing support from various sources. The emergence of social networking sites such as Facebook and MSN has increased our international knowledge of the neighbouring parts of the world, both allowing us to communicate and share ideas with our international peers, this has therefore led to the british culture mutating over the last quarter of a century.

Q. If britain is now a multi-cultural society, do we see evidence of this in british soap operas?

A. Yes, for example in Eastenders there is a common example of an british immigrant from trinidad and tobago called Patrick, his back story is a based on significant non-fiction events, for example he came over to England from Trinidad, this acts as a common stereotype of how foreign nationals immigrate to western countries to find work and provide for their families back home, this is a regular occurrence in modern day britain. However a recent study by the cultural diversity network found that people thought that ethinic minorities are under-represented in some of the main genres of UK television.

Q. Do minority cultures feel as represented in soaps as majority cultures?

A. No, because the mainstream soaps are mainly targeting the majority cultures because they are the most common, therefore meaning the audience can relate better to them, this is due to the fact that they include stereotypes that are common in modern day society. A recent survey on members of the british public found that a high percentage were of the opinion that minority cultures are underrepresented in the main british soaps. there tends to be a wide range of ethinic groups in soap operas however some are more represented than others.

Q. What impact has the development of other sub-cultures (youth culture etc) had on british soap operas?

A. Over the last few years, there has been an increase in younger characters in british soaps such as Eastenders, this is considered to be due to the development in youth culture, for example in Eastenders, a storyline enrolled some of the younger characters into a local gang, it showed how stressful it was for those who had been forced to join a gang, with the protagonist feeling guilty for committing crimes such as stealing, it also included events that were related to everyday recent events such as a murder, in the soap, a man gets murdered when he gets in confrontation with a local gangster, which linked in well at the time because there was a story in the news in which someone had been murdered, the producer used this as an opportunity to link reality with the show.

Q. What other cultural changes have also had an impact on british soap operas?

A. Current affairs have had a significant effect on british soap operas, for example the general election, some of the characters may be casted as supporters of a certain political party, maybe in some scenes a disagreement could happen between the two opposing groups. Another factor could be the characters supporting different football teams, for example in Eastenders the vast majority of characters support West Ham, where as the minor few support Arsenal, in the past this issue has arisen and caused conflicts.

Audience needs and Lifestyle

In the case of a soap or any other TV programme, the audience needs to be entertained, in the case of Eastenders for example, the audience can be left with a cliff hanger in most ephisodes, this is down to the 'duff duff' that is played at the end of each ephisode, this prompts the audience to want to watch the next ephisode to see what is going to happen next. TV producers usually adopt what is called a target audience, this is a specific group of people that they are aiming to get intrested in the show and therefore watch it day in day out. In terms of lifestyle, your everyday british soaps are usually aimed at people who want to watch something they enjoy when they come home from work, it may not be everyones cup of tea but it keeps us wanting to watch it more and more, it also becomes part of our everyday disscusions, this is because they are shows that try to mirror everyday life, ok maybe not in terms of breaking the law (people don't get murdered almost every day in reality) but it creates stereotypes who we can relate too.

Over time new ways of getting their target audiences involved in soaps have cropped up, for example blogs and forums, in which fans of the soap can interact and share their views on the events and storylines in the soap in question, these various internet - orientated communication methods also allow, in some cases, for fans to talk to the cast and the producers. Due to people voicing concerns, Ofcom was created, this is the company that deals with complaints about television adverts and programmes.

Another way in which watching soaps has developed is that fact that a whole range of different electronic devices now allow us to watch our favourite programmes when we want to, for example BBC iplayer allows people to watch their favourite shows whenever they want too. An example of various electronic devices being used would be a normal family, the parents watching eastenders on the TV, the daughter watching it on her laptop, where as the son will be watching it on his phone, this is a typical situation that demonstrates how viewing programmes has changed. Different types of soap programmes ahev been created such as spin - offs for younger viewers, e.g. E20 and Hollyoaks under - 18.