The aim of this study is to examine how objects and materials function in post-modern media culture as signifiers of socio-economic and cultural identities. The study suggests that objects and materials as signs only have the ability to signify socio-economic and cultural identities if they have gone through a process of ‘encoding’ to become recognizable conventions. My central argument proposes that the sets of Egoli are more successful than those of Isidingo, because Egoli’s set designer’s choice of furniture, objects and décor elements (which function as signs), are arranged in accordance with a particular style. These thus function successfully to communicate a particular socio-economic and cultural context for the characters in the storyline. I argue that in Isidingo, the organization and display of objects and materials into unconventional styles, undermines the function of the set as a signifier of socio-economic and cultural identities. In my practical work, I engage with design and décor conventions used in soap opera sets to communicate meaning. Objects and materials that are encoded and conventionally associated with femininity are used as signifiers of characterization in my work. / Leora Farber

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 513-523). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 256-270). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Murdoch University, 1990. / Thesis submitted to the School of Humanities. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI/Dissertation Abstracts International.

This thesis uses the concept of pleasure as it has been applied to cultural artefacts in order to give a description of various characteristics of the soap opera genre. The concept of pleasure is applied to soap opera narrative, characters, visual style and viewing attitudes. Three soap operas, The Young and the Restless, General Hospital, and Another World, are described in detail according to these various types of pleasures. The Young and the Restless is a soap that relies largely on visual pleasures and melodrama. General Hospital's strongest pleasures are related to its character development and use of humour. Another World, the most traditional of the three soaps, is best at stimulating the pleasures associated with talk. Through analysis of viewer commentary supplied by letters sent to Soap Opera Weekly and Soap Opera Update and Nielsen ratings, it can be concluded that the pleasures that most soap opera viewers seem to value the most are related to visual style, romance and a delicate balance between realistic characters and fantasy in narrative.

Popular feminine narratives, domestic, emotion-based texts through which communities of women have traditionally practiced feminine discourse, have been marginalised by dominant masculine cultures throughout their long history. This continues in the postmodern era, in which the culturally dominant postmodern aesthetic has declared the death of the social, narrative and affect, all intrinsic to the popular feminine narrative. Nevertheless, these narratives persevere in such forms as the daytime television soap opera. Using a reader-oriented model, American soap operas are discussed as a site for the generation of women's pleasure, and as a forum for the raising, sharing and addressing of problems which affect women's lives. Soap opera fan magazines further extend the already social soap opera experience, which celebrates emotion and empathy in a culture which often negates them.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Anthropology, March 1999. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A. (Journalism and Media Studies))--Rhodes University, 2005. / "A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts" -T.p. Includes bibliographical references.