MIT Creates Class About Soap Operas 57
An anonymous reader writes "Wikipedia apparently wasn't enough. There had to be a course on the much needed subject of soap operas at MIT.
Here's the Course Description: "The television landscape has changed drastically in the past few years; nowhere is this more prevalent than in the American daytime serial drama, one of the oldest forms of television content. This class examines the history of these "soap operas" and their audiences by focusing on the production, consumption, and media texts of soaps. The class will include discussions of what makes soap operas a unique form, the history of the genre, current experimentation with transmedia storytelling, the online fan community, and comparisons between daytime dramas and primetime serials from 24 to Friday Night Lights, through a study of Procter & Gamble's As the World Turns."" All I really need to know I learned from my evil twin, who fathered my unborn child, who has a extremely rare disease that only one of my many CIA contacts, who is also sleeping with my wife, can cure.
Nothing really new. (Score:1, Interesting)
Lo these many years ago, as wet behind the ears undergrad at Rice University (Go Owls!) I took a similar class - the Western Movie as a Genre. Western as in cowboys. Saw a lot of John Wayne movies.
Great stuff. Loads of fun. Annoyed the daylights out of me when my roommate did his end of semester paper at 2am before it was due at 9am, and got a better grade.
Really though, this kind of class is really a sort of literature. Lots of people watch soap operas, probably more than watch western movies on a daily basis. Seems to me any genre of literature bears study.
Sounds like Fun (Score:3, Interesting)
Space Operas (Score:4, Interesting)
Will they include Space Operas like Firefly, too? As much as I love that show, I have to admit there's a ton of drama there.
And how about Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog?
Kyle XY?
I guess the question is: Where do you draw the line? Is it only about ridiculous shows that are on around 2pm? Or does it include all shows that are heavy on drama, especially far-fetched drama.
Before anyone defends Firefly from the 'soap opera' label: River. Seriously, what is up with her 'abilities'? The gun scene where she closes her eyes and shoots 2 people dead at once... Seriously!
Class? (Score:3, Interesting)
Theory of RelativeTV (Score:3, Interesting)
Hmmm. Maybe they'll have me come lecture about my not-terribly-famous Theory of RelativeTV [anotherwayout.com].
Soap operas can have drastic economic consequences (Score:3, Interesting)