Exploratory Research 2012

The Influence of Armenian Soap Operas (TV Serials) on the Formation of the Social Attitudes of Teenagers

The paper focuses on the influence that Armenian Soap Operas have on social attitudes of teenagers. The main objective of this research is to find out the positive and negative influence of Armenian Soap Operas on the teenagers’ social behavior. The authors used data provided by the National Statistical Service of the Republic of Armenia as well as the data collected from surveys carried out among the teenagers all over the republic. The authors have studied the most popular TV series with different thematic focus, such as army, family, school etc, trying to reveal the messages they conveyed and attitudes of these soap opera fans towards different aspects of social life. The results of the study indicate that unlike the widespread belief of western scholars that media product embodies values of society, in Armenia it was found that negative values represented in the TV series don’t form negative social attitude. Thus, the authors try to draw the attention of the audience to the power of this media product and find a suitable application.