Soap Opera Conventions: Location, Characters, and Subject Matter

All soap operas have an established location; example of established location: a street. Within established locations there are communities; characters who all know eachother.
Communities make meeting places in soaps important, they enable characters to gossip and share information, which is great for the creation and continuity of a storyline; example of meeting places: a pub.This may also be related to the proximity within soaps as characters never get far away from the established location for their work, or meeting places for an evening out.
Established characters within close-knit communities are an important narrative focus within soap operas, this is because new characters can be introduced, characters may leave, or old characters may return.
Families are also an important aspect of this convention as they may be extended or feuds between families. Both characters and families can give more information on the location or their class as well as their secrets which may be exploited to the viewers resulting in more interesting storylines which keep the audience entertained.