Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here for more information on Handbook of U.S. Latino Psychology

Understanding Representation Jen Webb

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
International Journal of Cultural Studies
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Madill, A.
Right arrow Articles by Goldmeier, R.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

EastEnders

Texts of Female Desire and of Community

Anna Madill

University of Leeds, England, a.l.madill{at}.leeds.ac.uk

Rebecca Goldmeier

University of Leeds, England

This article describes a study investigating narratives obtained from 45 participants about their watching of the television program, EastEnders. The first aim was to understand why people watch this program. The second aim was to identify the kinds of social object dominating their accounts as a way of revealing the forms of cultural debate catalyzed by the show. Material was generated via an open-ended email questionnaire and analyzed qualitatively using grounded theory. Two major themes constituting social objects were identified - female desire and community. These themes were made up of seven categories, each of which helped explain why participants watched EastEnders: reduced troubles, gender, relaxation, social activity, community, realism and Britishness. These results are discussed in relation to past research but the authors also argue that, as the findings suggest some participants gained a therapeutic effect from watching EastEnders, there is a fruitful and little-explored link between such comfort viewing and research on psychotherapy.

Key Words: audience response • comfort viewing • discursive psychology • EastEnders • feminism • grounded theory • mass media • soap opera • television • therapy

International Journal of Cultural Studies, Vol. 6, No. 4, 471-494 (2003)
DOI: 10.1177/136787790364005
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?