Soap operas and cyberspace phenomena

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is reflect about digital changes. In thinking about the digital phenomenon, based on concepts that permeate the historical moment of technological change we are experiencing, we are led to believe that the introduction of the Internet constitutes a turning point for both media, and for the public and communicative processes. Particularly in relation to television products, there is a slight migration of audiences to the Internet, including the apparent manifestation of the most successful genres like soap operas, which began to appear, mainly through the action of the fans on sites like YouTube. This paper aims to see the concepts developed by some authors who have addressed this issue and outline a preliminary study on the presence of YouTube videos of fiction titles which were most television audience in Portugal. Key-words: telenovela, new tecnologies, fandom, YouTube