TELENOVELAS AND SOCIAL MEDIA

We live times in which the line between content producers and consumers is blurred. YouTube, message boards and blogs are samples of this. They're also examples of social media, in which communities are created around a certain definition of friendship and/or a common interest. 

Telenovelas are present in these communities. For instance, in Facebook, there are more than 500 groups related to telenovelas. Most of them boast membership numbers in the hundreds:

(NOTE: TO ENLARGE PICTURES, PLEASE CLICK ON THEM)

In particular, the telenovela I'm currently studying, LA VIDA ENTERA, has a Facebook group  with a discussion board in which participants post topics, in addition to the traditional "wall" comments, pictures and press reports:

Outside Facebook there are other communities dedicated to telenovelas. One of my favorites is: Comunidad todotnv, which is an offspin of wonderful webpage Todotnv:

And even though we will never leave completely behind the days in which telenovelas were discussed at our study and work places, these virtual communities definitely extend the conversation as they minimize geographic distance and blur the line between public and private.

Do you participate in any of these communities?

What has been your experience in them? 

TELENOVELAS: ONE YEAR IN THE BLOGOSPHERE

If you can't see it, here's the YouTube version:

THE IMPACT OF ARROZ CON LECHE ON MY BLOG

In the past 48 hours the Spanish version of this blog has quadrupled the number of visits it usually receives (click on image to see it more clearly):



Eighty percent of those hits come from search engines using these terms: "novela arroz con leche", "arroz con leche novela", "canciones novela arroz con leche", "telenovela arroz con leche" and "capítulo final de arroz con leche" (click on image to see it more clearly):



The most visited posts also reflect this telenovela's impact (click on image to see it more clearly):



Such effect can also be observed in the comments written by blog readers in a post I wrote months ago about the cultural meaning of the telenovela's title, and in the youtube page where user turocola uploads episodes of Arroz Con Leche.

Given the effect that the followers of Arroz Con Leche have had on my blog, here's a gift for them. A video of one of the most beautiful scenes of this telenovela, one that can only be fully understood by those who followed nightly Arroz con Leche:

BACK WITH A NEW LOOK

When this blog turned six months old, I made the resolution to change its visual look. It's taken me almost six more months to do it since it isn't easy for me to find time for such a task. Finally, it's done! (Hence my wide smile as I look at my computer's screen). And it was possible thanks to the amazing help of my friend dRAGOONS. If you can read Spanish, I recommend you visit his blog, Utópico Real, where you will get to know this bioanalysis student, who moderates the Internet message board TVVI, and who has a real talent for visual communication.

The change in the blog's look comes at the same time as I arrive back to Athens after two intense weeks of research in Caracas, where I documented the current state of the telenovela industry, ten months after the closing of RCTV and its transformation into RCTV Internacional. I still have much analysis to do, but the panorama isn't particularly sunny for actors, writers and the Venezuelan public. Both RCTV Internacional and Venevisión have shifted gears and now privilege the international market over the local one. This will probably mean more remakes of old telenovelas and more telenovelas that follow the traditional model of the telenovela rosa. It isn't a good time for creativity and talent. In addition, the work sources for actors have significantly dried up.

This trip also included several media interviews about my book Venezuela es una Telenovela. It's always both surreal and fascinating for me to talk about my book. Interviews usually center in either or both aspects of my research: telenovelas and Venezuela.

There was an element of serendipity in my visit to my birth city. Two events coincided with my stay. I've commented already about the first one: the premiere of Caramelo e Chocolate, the first telenovela broadcast by government network TVES.

The second event was the end of the production of Arroz Con Leche, a telenovela that's entering its final broadcast week. In all the years I've been studying telenovelas, I'd never been able to witness that moment in a telenovela's biography. Once again I was reminded of the importance of vantage point for the construction of our perceptions, and the immense distance that exists between what people "know" about a telenovela's production and what actually happens behind the heavy doors of every television studio and inside the network's boardrooms.


While I was in Caracas there was an episode of Arroz Con Leche that garnered 15 points of rating, a true feat...even in the current no-internal-competition environment. In this particular episode the character Tomás Chacón beats his wife Amanda. (We don't see him actually hitting her because such scenes are prohibited by the Venezuelan Ley de Contenidos). What does this peak in the ratings mean under these circumstances? Is it because there's a fascination with violence and/or drama? Or is it that Venezuelans can identify with and/or recognize this issue as one of the country's most pressing sociocultural problems? It's worth analyzing since those numbers and the content of that episode provide us with a trap door through which we can examine the social formation.

TELENOVELAS: EMAILS, REQUESTS AND BLOGS

This will be an unusual post in which I will respond to the emails I've received from people who read this blog.

A large number of emails request two things from me:

1. A list of my favorite blogs related to telenovelas
2. The titles and interpreters of the musical themes from Venezuelan telenovela Arroz Con Leche.

So, here's my very short list of blogs that focus on telenovelas with three caveats: 1.- There are many blogs dedicated to telenovelas, so this list is unavoidably incomplete. (I also wanted it to be very short). 2.- I'm including blogs in English and Spanish. But, there are blogs related to telenovelas in almost every language. 3.- I'm NOT including message/discussion boards, just traditional blogs.

Blogs in English:

Telenovela Love Garden
Telenovelas Stories Dot Com
(both by Philomena Ojikutu from Lagos, Nigeria)
Caray Caray! (recaps in English of telenovelas broadcast in the US)

Blogs in Spanish:

Todotnv (Excellent blog from Spain)
Blog de Telenovelas (In one page you will find the links for the latest posts from six blogs in Spanish related to telenovelas)

Now, for the titles and interpreters of the music of Arroz Con Leche:

* Main musical theme of Arroz con Leche, interpreted by el Pollo Brito

* Fabio and Silvia's song, Sin Ti, interpreted by Johnny Sigal

* Amanda and Rodrigo's song, No Me Arrepiento De Nada, by César Román

* Desde que te Perdí, by Roque Valero

TELENOVELAS IN THE CLASSROOM: MY STUDENTS' TIME TO PRESENT III

Here are three more student presentations. Three new topics in the always fascinating world of telenovela cosumption:

* The consumption of Amarte Es Mi Pecado
* The controversy generated by the Colombia TV version of Gustavo Bolívar's book, Sin Tetas No Hay Paraíso.
* Consumption from the perspective of a US woman who leads a group of bloggers who write daily recaps in English of the telenovelas broadcast in the U.S.


Presenter: Jessica MacLean

Topic: The consumption of Amarte Es Mi Pecado

Sources: Internet bulletin boards and message boards

Objective: To analyze the reception of the successful Amarte Es Mi Pecado.

Findings and conclusions:
- It mattered to the audience that the telenovela was produced by Ernesto Alonso.
- The public enjoyed watching actor Sergio Sendel (Arturo) as the protagonist, and not as yet another villain in his career.
- The audience commented the romanticism of the main love story. However, there were also posts that suggested they would have preferred the antagonist, Paulina (Alessandra Rosaldo) as the progagonist.
- Casilda, interpreted by Tiaré Scanda, was considered by many as the best character in Amarte Es Mi Pecado.

My thoughts: One of the most interesting aspects related to telenovelas is the relative importance given to producers, directors and writers. These days in Mexico producers are preponderant in the credits. Many telenovelas are known as "the new telenovela by" producer so and so. Their names are recognized. For example, the late Ernesto Alonso, known as "el Señor Telenovela", Carla Estrada, Salvador Mejía, Valentín Pimstein, etc.). In countries like Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela, the author is given the most important place. Names like Fernando Gaitán, Bernardo Romero, Benedito Ruy Barbosa, Aguinaldo Silva, José Ignacio Cabrujas and Leonardo Padrón (to name a few), sell telenovelas. It's interesting also that, in spite of their tremendous power in the set and locations, the public doesn't know directors as well as they recognize producers in Mexico and authors in Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela. A possible reason for this could be that often a directorial team changes throught the production months of a telenovela. Scholar Thomas Tufte argues that "their role as intermediaries between the author and actors clearly works against their getting any public credit" (Tufte, 2000, p. 135). Whatever the reason, I'm intrigued by the directors' relative anonymity since in the film industry it is quite the opposite.







Presenter: Alli Gates

Topic: Reactions to Sin Tetas No Hay Paraíso

Sources: Press, Internet message boards and blogs

Objective: To study the reaction to how reality was made into fiction in Sin Tetas No Hay Paraíso.

Findings and conclusions:
- The author's lesson seems to have reached those who post in message boards.
- Even though Gustavo Bolívar aimed at a story with universal qualities, there were protests and even lawsuit threats from the Colombian city of Pereira where the plot takes place.
- The title is also controverial. Some argue that it's vulgar. There are countries where the series aired with a changed title that didn't include the word "tetas."
- Female actor María Adelaida Puerta, who was the protagonist, Catalina, has taken the message in Sin Tetas No Hay Paraíso, that "paradise" is only reachable via education and honest work, to public schools.
- However, current Colombian reality suggests that physical appearance, breast size and plastic surgery have tremendous importance in the social formation.

My thoughts: Is Sin Tetas No Hay Paraíso a telenovela? It's too short to be considerede one. But it's also too long to be defined as a miniseries or a TV version of a book. Regarding its codes, Sin Tetas No Hay Paraíso has both melodrama and love triangles, like a telenovela. At the same time, it doesn't have a happy ending. Instead, its tragic end points to the series final lesson dispensed by two of its main actors: María Adelaida Puerta and Andrés Toro (Byron).







Presenter: Jackie Barnett

Topic: Telenovela consumption in the U.S. from a blogger's point of view

Sources: Caray, caray!, Pratie Place and an interview with blogger Melinama

Objective: To explore the person that is behind the blog Caray, caray!. Why does she have this blog?

Findings and conclusions:
- Jane Peppler, "Melinama", is a musical artist and a Yale grad who lives in North Carolina. She is the leader of blog Caray, caray! where daily recaps of telenovelas are posted in English.
- The principle of crime and punishment everpresent in telenovelas captured her attention first. "The more dastardly the villain, the more extraordinary the demise" is the telenovela premise that this blogger enjoys and welcomes.
- She began recapping telenovela Alborada in her blog and received many positive comments. She then started Caray, caray! where a heterogeneous group recaps daily the episodes of telenovelas broadcast in the U.S.
- In these blogs comments focus on two main aspects: the physical appearance of cast members, and the variations of the telenovela code present in some twists of the traditional plot.
- Comments suggest a diverse captive audience. Men and women (in many cases, couples who watch together) from different cultures and countries. People who are watching their first telenovela and audience members who have been hooked for a long time, English-speakers, and Spanish-speakers.

My thoughts: Thanks to journalist Luis Clemens who introduced me to Caray, caray!, I've been one of its readers for several months. I know that for my students the blog's recaps were important for understanding the telenovelas they chose to study. This is a blog that is useful not only for people who love and watch telenovelas, but also for those who want to learn Spanish. As a researcher I confess my amazement at the effort, time and energy invested by Melinama and her team. It is one more evidence of telenovelas' strong magnetism.





To be continued...