soap opera network soap writers and directors

He uses the metaphor of the game of 'nintendo' to illustrate the way in which audience members watch a soap opera not just for the story (much of the time, the outcome is predictable) but, rather, for the way in which individual viewers can interact with their TV set in an informal kind of moral game. He also describes the audience's intense involvement with the characters, their curiosity about what will happen to them, and the natural human tendency to gossip (such talk, especially if it revolves around key social issues, can create a climate for social change, Sabido notes). Recognising that TV has emerged as an 'important moral authority', and that people seek its guidance in making everyday decisions, he stresses the melodramatic tension between good and evil as key to TV soaps' power to depict good and bad social behaviours.

Sabido begins by discussing the role that television soap operas can play in educating the public. Conducted on Decemby Arvind Singhal and Rafael Obregon, this interview includes reflections by Sabido on his journey over 3 decades to develop a theory-based production method for the social use of commercial soap operas.

68-77), this paper is an interview of Miguel Sabido, a writer-producer-director of theatre and socially responsible soap operas in Mexico whose work spawned the entertainment-education (E-E) strategy and has inspired various E-E efforts worldwide.

Published in the Journal of Development Communication (Vol.

Soap opera network soap writers and directors