Geneza brytyjskiej docusoap i polskiej telenoweli dokumentalnej w kontekście produkcyjno-nadawczym
The Genesis of the British Docusoap and the Polish Documentary Soap Opera in a Production and Broadcast Context

Summary/Abstract: At the end of the 20th century, European public television stations had to fight for an audience with a growing number of commercial stations. The solution was to be found in true stories from the lives of people, which borrow style and dramaturgy from fictional series, such as docusoap – a hybrid television genre that combines the properties of observational documentalism with the features of the soap opera. The makers of docusoap took advantage of the conditions that appeared in television production and the structure of the TV schedule, so that the new genre would provide stations with the largest number of viewers, i.e. appropriate viewership rates and high ratings, which determined advertisers’ interest in buying airtime. In European television stations there was a fashion for docusoap, which did not bypass Poland. The author describes the circumstances of the creation, the flourishing and the end of docusoap in Great Britain and Germany and documentary soap opera in Poland. She compares the production and broadcasting situation, as well as the significance and role of docusoap and docu-drama, pointing to national differences in this area.

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