Chapter 4 Sexual Content in Soap Operas - Leicester Research ...

Sex and Sexuality: A Content Analysis of Soap Operas
Actual changes in sexual behaviour. A woman, for example, might use
techniques for lovemaking described in a novel.‘(p.64).
However, most content analysis studies that have relied on the social learning
theory in explaining ‗potential media effects‘ (eg. Greenberg, Linsangan, Soderman,
Heeter, Lin, Stanley, and Siemicki 1993; Heintz-Knowles, 1996) have been
criticized for their overemphasis on the ‗negative effects‘ and feeding into the
‗effects model‘, their inability to explain how meanings might arise and how texts
are interpreted by audiences, and their moral overtone and morally driven agenda in
the sense that much attention is drawn to the prevalence of socially unacceptable
behaviours (e.g. unmarried sex or extramarital affairs) (Buckingham and Bragg,
2002).
Gunter (2002) considered the concept of identification as one of the significant
concepts social learning theory offers, as the greater the perceived similarity
between the observer and the model character on screen, the greater the likelihood
for the observer to imitate the behaviours and actions of the model character. Thus,
if young people turn to the behaviours (sexual behaviours and portrayals) of their
role-model characters in the media in general, and on television in particular, for
information and cues for their own sexual development and learning—as many
studies have suggested, young people are increasingly quoting the media, and
television in particular, as one of the main sources of sexual information available to
them (Buckingham and Brag, 2003; Kunkel et al., 1996 and 2005; Strasburger and
Wilson, 2002)—then it is imperative, from a social policy perspective, that media
sexual content and portrayals of sexual behaviours incorporate sexual messages that
emphasise the need for and importance of safe-sex and responsible sexual
behaviours. Gunter (2002) argues that ‗if teenagers turn to television or film for role
models in the context of their sexual development, it is important that these models
set responsible examples (p. 86). Thus, this study attempts to identify whether or not
soap operas portray sexual behaviours in general and risks and responsibilities in
particular in ways that confer rewards/punishments.
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