Do serials dictate a dramatic life

Soap drama first started off in 1930s and it has successfully brought an impact into people’s life.

For instance, Korean drama “Man from another star” is now hitting some of the Asia country such as    China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Fans of the drama are crazily addicted to it, until the extend some of them even bought the car which was driven by the actor.

However, does soap drama affects their life?
How can a soap drama make such an impact?

First, we look at the typical way to arrange the storyline of a soap opera.

 According to Dr Merris Griffiths, expert in media literacy, the storyline is usually based on problem within personal or family relationship.

Audience can easily identify the feeling and opinion of the character.

Through identification, audience will slowly recognize the incident which is similar to his or her own life.

 It helps the audience in finding their own identity and at the same time they gain pleasure from doing so.

Zhi Qian, audience of the Korea drama said that she learn to be more confident and positive after watching that drama.

Script which constantly refers back to past event is also another reason why soap operas are so famous nowadays.

The drama arranges in a way where the same characters are seemed every day and it offers an easy undemanding entertainment to the audience.

The storyline move in a slowly flow so that the audience can easily catch up with it even though they have missed out few episodes.

The “cliff hanger” is also another main reason.

Dramas design in a way where each episode ends at a critical point of the story.

It creates curiosity and makes the audience want to know what is going to happen next.

For example, when comes to ending, what is going to happen to the main actor in “man from another star” had become a hot topic.

Everyone is thinking different type of ending, some of them even did a video about it.

When we are stressing up, there is always a place we escape to.

Watching soap drama is also escapism.

Escapism is an element which contributes a lot to soap operas.

Research which done by Ien Ang, professor of cultural studies, shows that escapism and relaxation give pleasing effect to the audience.

It helps them to release their tension and escape from the pressure of everyday life when they are in the world of soap opera.

They can just focus on the content of the drama and forget about the stressful stuff for awhile.

For example, the sweet scenes which occur in the Korea drama make the audience feel good.

“It feel so nice when the bad guy was finally caught by the main actor”, said Phei Wen.

Imaginary participation in the fictional world also provides pleasure to the audience and make the audience so addicted to the drama.

Audience involve themselves in and out of the drama and experience the storyline as genuine.

For example, one of the audience Sin Lu said that imagining she is the main actress and dating such a wonderful man makes her feel good.

In conclusion, not only good casting and good looking actors are important to a drama but also the psychological effect which the audience obtains from the drama.

In the other hand, there is always two sides of the stories. It depends on how the audience reacts to the addiction.

We can always choose to follow the trend blindly or learn something new from it.