Commercial Break?: A Textual Reading of Narrative Continuity in Advertisements Aired During Daytime Soap Operas on the CBS Network
This textual analysis reflects how commercials aired during daytime television portray minorities, and how these portrayals are unrealistic and stereotypical. My research question is: How do advertisements aired during daytime on the CBS network reproduce the narrative of soap operas? The commercials I examined were aired during the soap opera "The Bold and the Beautiful." As I analyzed these commercials I looked for three particular narrative continuums: whiteness, femininity, and middle class. Whiteness can be seen continued from the soap opera to the commercial in both the appearances of the actors and actresses and as well as their surroundings. Because our society is so affected by media and how media makers portray the ideals of physical attractiveness I will demonstrate how femininity is unrealistically portrayed by both soap operas and their commercials. The middle class narrative continuum displays this economic stratum as an entire way of life to its viewers. In my paper I discuss these three narratives in commercials as continuums in soap operas.
School:
University of Illinois at Springfield
Department:
Communications
Research Advisor:
Norman Denzin
Department of Research Advisor:
Institute of Communications Research
Year of Publication:
2003