Telenovelas

The most popular form of television in Latin America, telenovelas are serial dramas that tend to run five or six nights per week in prime time for a limited duration of up to eight or nine months. They typically develop a specific main story, along with various subplots involving major and minor characters. The themes usually involve family dramas, romance, villains, urban settings, social mobility, and, increasingly, contemporary social issues. They dominate prime-time viewing hours in almost all of Latin America and tend to receive the highest audience ratings of all programs. Since 2000, however, reality TV shows have begun to encroach upon telenovelas' popularity.

Historically, telenovelas are related to soap operas and serial novels. They are derived from radionovelas, which were first produced in Cuba by Colgate-Palmolive to sell soap to housewives, following North American successes with the soap opera. The genre spread to other countries, often in the form of exported scripts that were reproduced locally. Telenovelas were first produced in Cuba by Colgate-Palmolive in the early 1950s, and again scripts, scriptwriters, directors, and producers flowed to other countries, particularly after the Cuban Revolution in 1959. Many scholars think that telenovelas' roots include French and English serial novels, which were imported and translated throughout Latin America.

The present-day telenovela has changed quite a bit from its roots in soap opera. Most popular culture scholars have come consider it a distinct genre, and its worldwide popularity continues to transform its content and aesthetics. The main differences are more varied themes, increasingly realistic production styles and values, and a very broad audience. Whereas some telenovelas are still oriented toward family dramas and romance, many have more realistic themes. The Brazilian telenovelas Vale tudo and Pantanal are about economic corruption and ecology respectively. Some telenovelas, particularly Brazilian, Colombian, and Venezuelan, are historically focused. Although Mexico produces more traditional family dramas, it has also created educational telenovelas with themes on health, family planning, and the need for education.

The telenovela has a very strong relationship to its audience. Telenovelas loom large in many Latin American conversations, and popular ones are watched for months by almost everyone with a television set. Many shows are heavily influenced by audience feedback. Plots are changed, and characters are highlighted or dropped over time. Because telenovelas are the most widely viewed productions, they also play a primary commercial role in selling products to the audience. In Brazil, prominently placed commercial products and discussions of products are worked into the visual design and dialogue of telenovelas.

Most of the major Latin American countries produce telenovelas, with Mexico and Brazil as the largest producers and exporters. Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Chile and Peru and the United States also produce quite a few and often export them. From the late 1970s to the late 1990s, telenovelas occupied a central position in national television productions, displacing imported North American programs from prime time. International telenovela trade took off in the late 1980s, spurring the popularity of telenovelas throughout the United States and Europe. This popularity leveled off in the late 1990s, as European nations produced home-grown versions, grew tired of the genre, and embraced newer media trends. In East and Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines telenovelas have seen a boom since the late 1990s. With the increasing number of Latino audience in the United States, the U.S. market is prime target for telenovela distributors.

The international popularity of telenovelas has triggered debates over its creative autonomy in the age of global capitalism. To appeal to U.S. markets, Mexican producers incorporate U.S. Latinos and their needs into the script. To better identify with foreign markets, Mexican and Brazilian telenovelas have decreased their on-location footage for more "universal" settings. Telenovela co-productions have become increasingly common. They involve collaboration between producers from various nation-states on a single series. These telenovelas are released to one or several markets, and preserve a mixture of the cultures involved. Some scholars argue that telenovelas have severed strong national ties between Latin Americans and their programs, neutralizing cultural characteristics to reach wider audiences. Others argue that the transformations of telenovelas reflect their aesthetic flexibility in view of economic and cultural processes of media globalization.

See alsoClair, Janete; Radio and Television.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Hamburger, Esther. O Brasil antenado: A sociedade da novela. Sâo Paulo: Jorge Zahar, 2005.

Havens, Timothy. "Globalization and the Generic Transformation of Telenovelas." In Thinking Outside the Box: A Contemporary Television Genre Reader, edited by Gary R. Edgerton and Brian G. Rose, pp. 271-293. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2005.

Kottak, Conrad Philip. Prime Time Society. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1989.

Martin-Barbero, Jesús, and Zilkia Janer, "Transformations in the Map: Identities and Culture Industries." Latin American Perspectives 27, no. 4 (July 2000): 27-48.

Mattelart, Michèle, and Armand Mattelart. The Carnival of Images, Brazilian Television Fiction, trans. David Buxton. New York: Bergin and Harvey, 1991.

Reyes de la Maza, Luis. México Sentimental: Crónica de la Telenovela. México City: Clío, 1999.

Vink, Niko. The Telenovela and Emancipation: A Study on Television and Social Change in Brazil. Amsterdam: Royal Tropical Institute, 1990.

                                     Joseph Straubhaar

                                    Sophia Koutsoyannis