Multi-Nationalism in soaps

Eastenders is shown in many countries, they are mainly English speaking countries but have been shown in the likes of India. This soap i feel is shown in these other countries due to the fact that it depicts life in a suburb of London. It is not in a high cost bracket to produce. Viewers in other countries gain more knowledge on London, the east end and England, along with local cultures. Viewers from other countries do not need to view it from a TV as they are able to gain access to iPlayer (BBC), YouTube or even go onto the BBC Eastenders website directly to view the latest episodes.

The problem is, with all soaps, not just Eastenders, viewers may get the wrong impression as programmes can predict fights, murders, abuse and racism in a weeks episode, when infact this would not be the case in an everyday community. In most soaps, there are goodies and badies, which soaps are often based around. With the form of a Multi-Cultural society, this means that soaps have a difficult task of not portraying Indians or Arabs for example, in a negative way. This is because they do not want to be deemed as racist or discriminative, but also because of the fact that their soap, is being shown all over the world. For example, Muslims would not like to be portrayed as terrorists, so soaps would need to make sure that they were not shown this way in their televison shows.

The reason why many soaps have to be careful about how they portray certain cultures, is because of how Multi-National the soap actually is. Here is a list of all the places in the world where English soaps are watched on a regular basis:

• The United Kingdom (Obviously)
• The USA
• Canada
• South Africa
• India
• Switzerland

English soaps are avaliable on the internet in all of these countries, enabling people to watch the episodes wherever they may be. This allows the soap a larger range of viewers who may watch the soap, so they must cater for all nationalities.

The reason why there is such a big interest about british soaps around the world, is because of the history behind the British Empire. Time ago, Britain had a large empire which controlled many countries, including India and South Africa. This is the reason behind this interest. For example, people in India remember when India was British, and their culture has changed slightly because of this, so they have a great deal of interest into the lives of the British.

The BBC has a worldwide reputation for being the largest television company in the world. Their services range from podcasts, to internet websites, television and radio. BBC offer many services abroad, for example BBC World, which is available in almost every country, broadcasting shows about different cultures and heritages. Of course the internet is available all over the world, and BBC have been able to enlarge their reputation by showing the latest news, sport and lifestyle news on their websites.