The Genesis of the British Docusoap and the Polish Documentary Soap Opera in a Production and Broadcast Context
Beata Kosińska-Krippner
beata.krippner@ispan.plInstitute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8096-9708
Abstract
At the end of the 20th century, European public television stations had to fight for an audience with a growing number of commercial stations. The solution was to be found in true stories from the lives of people, which borrow style and dramaturgy from fictional series, such as docusoap – a hybrid television genre that combines the properties of observational documentalism with the features of the soap opera. The makers of docusoap took advantage of the conditions that appeared in television production and the structure of the TV schedule, so that the new genre would provide stations with the largest number of viewers, i.e. appropriate viewership rates and high ratings, which determined advertisers’ interest in buying airtime. In European television stations there was a fashion for docusoap, which did not bypass Poland. The author describes the circumstances of the creation, the flourishing and the end of docusoap in Great Britain and Germany and documentary soap opera in Poland. She compares the production and broadcasting situation, as well as the significance and role of docusoap and docu-drama, pointing to national differences in this area.
Keywords:
docusoap, documentary soap opera, Polish Television, BBC, TV scheduleReferences
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Authors
Beata Kosińska-Krippnerbeata.krippner@ispan.pl
Institute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8096-9708
Doktor nauk humanistycznych w zakresie filmoznawstwa i medioznawstwa; adiunkt w Instytucie Sztuki Polskiej Akademii Nauk; w latach 2011-2020 kierownik Zakładu Antropologii Kultury, Filmu i Sztuki Audiowizualnej IS PAN; członkini redakcji „Kwartalnika Filmowego”, w którym w latach 1993-2003 publikowała m.in. doroczną kronikę wydarzeń filmowych. Prace naukowe z zakresu historii oraz teorii filmu i telewizji publikowała m.in. w „Kwartalniku Filmowym” i tomach zbiorowych. Współpracowała z kwartalnikiem „Polish Culture” (1997-2015). Zasiadała w jury Międzynarodowego Festiwalu Filmów Krótkometrażowych w Lublinie (2013-2014) oraz była członkinią komisji ekspertów przy Ministrze Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego (2012-2014). Członkini Polskiego Towarzystwa Badań nad Filmem i Mediami. Zajmuje się filmem dokumentalnym w kontekście hybrydowych gatunków granicznych (m.in. mockdokumentem i docusoap), historią i teorią gatunków filmowych i telewizyjnych oraz kinem austriackim.
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