A strong example of the relationship between realism and product, especially genre product, is that of television soaps.

Everyone 'knows' that these fall generally within the mode of fiction. But within this broad category there is still a scale. They are in a different part of the scale, we tend to assume, from a horror movie, on this scale we expect soaps, especially British soaps, to have locations or characters from life.

Kilborn (1992.) says that they 'seek to create the illusion of a reality, they have 'a sense of lived experience'.

This quality of realism is in the authentic detail of sets or of dress, it is in the extended time span that is a luxury of soaps running over months and years, the possibility of matching real time.

It is in the ideological dimensions of realism, where soaps tend to reflect attitudes and values, even their shifts over a period of time.

The very longevity of some soaps makes them part of our life's experience. This in itself causes them to become part of our reality.

I suggest that we accept a rather different kind of realism in soaps produced by other cultures (e.g. the USA or Australia) simply because they are from other cultures, and we can't have the same kind of life reference

For example, in Television Soaps (1992,) Richard Kilborn starts off talking about the characteristics and the formula of soaps in terms of the 'never ending story'.

He also points to the complexity of variations on the formula of any genre when he says that although the audience has a considerable 'fund of knowledge as to what soaps are and how they work', their main concern is usually with 'the individual model rather than with abstract questions of design'.

However, media students ought to be concerned with the design and what we can learn from it.

So in the case of soaps we can list other

likely elements of their formula,

such as

matriarchal figures,

family-centred drama,

conflict through misunderstanding,

emotional crises,

locations that act as a focus for the community,

a range of generations in the characters,

episodic structure with cliff-hanger endings,

parallel multi-stranded narratives.

Mary Ellen Brown (1993) describes this genre in these terms:

� a serial form that resists narrative closure

� use of multiple characters and plots

� use of time that parallels actual time (with the implication that the action
carries on even when we are not watching)

� abrupt segmentation (jumps) between parts of the narrative structure

� emphasis on dialogue, problem-solving and intimate conversation

� male characters who are 'sensitive' men

� female characters who have power outside the home

� set in homes, or places that function as home.

The audience's knowledge of the formula helps them know what is going on and gives them the pleasure of feeling they are on familiar ground. And if it gives them a blueprint for making sense of the drama, it also gives the production company a blueprint for making the drama, one which it can feel confident it shares with that audience.