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238 Communication Theory & Research
As argued elsewhere (Liebes and Livingstone, 1992), the American prime-time
soap operas appear to fit the dynastic model, and the kinship chart for Dallas is
reproduced here to illustrate the main features of this model. Similarly, the
American daytime soap operas are structured according to the dyadic model.
Lastly, the community model was identified through the kinship structure of the
British soap operas, Coronation Street and EastEnders.
These three prototypical forms or models have in some instances evolved
historically through the direct imitation of a programme produced elsewhere (for
example, The Bold and the Beautiful served as basis for Brightness, and Coronation
Street was the source for Lindenstrasse). In other cases, the model represents an
analytic category which attempts to characterize parallel developments in soap
opera forms across different countries. More work on the origins of soaps in each
country is needed to establish the patterns of diffusion, deliberate or otherwise,
and to identify why certain forms appear to fit and be successful in the cultural
contexts of different countries.

Research orientation and method

The present analysis is not intended as a complete study of the meanings of
European soap operas. Many of the conclusions which emerge from a textual
analysis must remain provisional until followed through in an audience study.
However, our approach starts with the assumption that texts constrain audiences
and that the right balance has to be found between the recognition that audiences
are active and the acknowledgement of the restrictions imposed on this activity
by the text.
In order to study locally made soaps in Europe, we have devised a new
methodological approach modelled on ‘ethnographic observation’ which we
applied to the life world in the soap opera (Liebes and Livingstone, 1994). We
believe that it makes sense to study social relations and cultural identity in
soaps by examining the ways in which the society within the soap functions on
the micro-level. By labelling our approach ‘ethnographic’, we want to empha-
size that we start from charting the network of family and romantic relation-
ships as the social context of the soap world in order not to impose our own
(paradigmatic or syntagmatic) analytical categories. Moreover, as the story
evolves through interactions, and is involved with relationships, the appropri-
ate way to observe characters is within the context of these relationships, focus-
ing on the rules according to which certain ties are allowed, approved of,
punished, taken for granted (or combinations thereof) within the kinship struc-
ture of the soap opera. Our ethnographic approach does not regard the society
portrayed in the soap opera as mimetic, as a realistic portrayal of the society in
front of the screen. Rather, we analyse the characters, narratives and situations
of the soap opera as they are established and evolve over the lengthy course of
a programme’s own history, in order to reveal the agenda of concerns, values
and metanarratives of the soap opera. Based on what audience researchers have
learned of soap opera audiences in terms of their viewing resources, motivations