EastEnders: Texts of Female Desire and of Community

This article describes a study investigating narratives obtained from 45 participants about their watching of the television program, EastEnders. The first aim was to understand why people watch this program. The second aim was to identify the kinds of social object dominating their accounts as a wa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of cultural studies 2003-12, Vol.6 (4), p.471-494
Main Authors: Madill, Anna, Goldmeier, Rebecca
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Audience
Audiences
Community
Discourse
Feminism
Gender
Grounded Theory
Mass Media
Media
Media studies
Popular culture
Psychotherapy
Responses
Sociology
Sociology of communication and mass media. Sociolinguistics
Sociology of knowledge and sociology of culture
Television
Television Viewing
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Summary:This article describes a study investigating narratives obtained from 45 participants about their watching of the television program, EastEnders. The first aim was to understand why people watch this program. The second aim was to identify the kinds of social object dominating their accounts as a way of revealing the forms of cultural debate catalyzed by the show. Material was generated via an open-ended email questionnaire and analyzed qualitatively using grounded theory. Two major themes constituting social objects were identified - female desire and community. These themes were made up of seven categories, each of which helped explain why participants watched EastEnders: reduced troubles, gender, relaxation, social activity, community, realism and Britishness. These results are discussed in relation to past research but the authors also argue that, as the findings suggest some participants gained a therapeutic effect from watching EastEnders, there is a fruitful and little-explored link between such comfort viewing and research on psychotherapy.
ISSN:1367-8779
1460-356X
DOI:10.1177/136787790364005