Perdita
30-10-2008, 05:08
Shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt is due to criticise soap operas, claiming they should not "legitimise negative social behaviour" in a speech to the London School of Economics.
In a session with LSE students on public broadcasting, he will suggest that broadcasters are continually contradicting their efforts to raise awareness for certain issues such as binge drinking and obesity with scenes and storylines from their soaps.
According to The Telegraph, he will say: "It's not good enough for Channel 4 to say they are doing their bit with a Dispatches programme on alcohol abuse like 'Drinking Yourself To Death' when 18% of the screen time in Hollyoaks was accounted for by alcohol references.
"Nor can Five claim to be doing their bit with Diet Doctors Inside Out when the gym instructor in Home And Away is seen with alcohol in 50% of his scenes"
He will add: "I'm not saying there should be no alcohol references in any soaps. To deliver large audiences, programmes need to reflect the world in which we actually live and not some Truman Show fantasy of what we would like it to be. Nor do we want to fall into the trap of co-opting broadcasters into social engineering.
"But just as it would be wrong in a plural and democratic society to require broadcasters to produce programmes that meet government objectives and promote social behaviour, so it is also wrong for broadcasters to produce programmes that legitimise negative social behaviour."
I put this here because of the mention of Hollyoaks but I suppose it applies to all other soaps too.
In a session with LSE students on public broadcasting, he will suggest that broadcasters are continually contradicting their efforts to raise awareness for certain issues such as binge drinking and obesity with scenes and storylines from their soaps.
According to The Telegraph, he will say: "It's not good enough for Channel 4 to say they are doing their bit with a Dispatches programme on alcohol abuse like 'Drinking Yourself To Death' when 18% of the screen time in Hollyoaks was accounted for by alcohol references.
"Nor can Five claim to be doing their bit with Diet Doctors Inside Out when the gym instructor in Home And Away is seen with alcohol in 50% of his scenes"
He will add: "I'm not saying there should be no alcohol references in any soaps. To deliver large audiences, programmes need to reflect the world in which we actually live and not some Truman Show fantasy of what we would like it to be. Nor do we want to fall into the trap of co-opting broadcasters into social engineering.
"But just as it would be wrong in a plural and democratic society to require broadcasters to produce programmes that meet government objectives and promote social behaviour, so it is also wrong for broadcasters to produce programmes that legitimise negative social behaviour."
I put this here because of the mention of Hollyoaks but I suppose it applies to all other soaps too.