Soap opera episode sparks public debate on violence

Petition calls for restreictions on TV-violence; broadcaster defends itself and notes that many callers have not actually seen the show.

print this

The current spring’s last episode of Salatut elämät (”Concealed Lives”), a formulaic Finnish daily soap opera on the commercial television channel MTV3, was broadcast on Monday.
      Since its first episode aired in January 1999, it has been one of the most popular TV-shows in Finland, regularly attracting around a million viewers (one-fifth of Finland's population).
      Salatut elämät follows the daily lives of several families, living in the same apartment block in Helsinki. Over the years, the series has dealt with sensitive issues, including abortion, drug abuse, alcoholism, homosexuality, incest, and racism.
      The episode entitled Perutaan häät, perutaan yhteinen hautapaikka (”Let’s cancel the wedding, let’s cancel the shared burial plot”) has caused widespread debate on the online sites of newspapers and magazines.
     
The episode that was perceived as shocking implies that a pregnant woman was buried alive and that one of the central locations in the series - a popular restaurant - was blown up in the middle of a wedding celebration.
      The programme is not quite a true soap, in that it takes an annual summer break, and hence the next episode will be aired no sooner than in the autumn, leaving the audience in suspense as to what really happened.
      The Ministry of Transport and Communications also received e-mails concerning the episode, whereupon Minister of Communications Suvi Lindén contacted the management of MTV3, reported the late-edition tabloid Iltalehti on its online sites yesterday.
      ”I came into contact through my assistant with CEO Pekka Karhuvaara over the e-mails the ministry receives on a regular basis. On Tuesday we got mail concerning Salatut elämät, but people have also been concerned about Madventures”, Suvi Lindén notes.
      Madventures is a Finnish gonzo extreme travel show broadcast on the TV channel Sub since October 2002.
      The show is renowned/notorious for its "MadCook" section, in which the doughty travellers attempt to eat some of the least-favoured and most nausea-inducing dishes around the world.
     
During a visit to the eastern town of Sotkamo on Tuesday, Suvi Lindén received a petition with 1,900 signatures, demanding that TV violence should be restricted and calling for greater social responsibility.
      ”We have contacted television companies that have regular discussions about the content of their TV programmes. Actually the problem is that the interface between television and the Internet has changed. The fact is that on the Internet it is possible to evade the regulations applying to TV viewing-times [the scheduling "watershed"] and age recommendations, which is why the responsibility has been largely transferred to parents and content providers”, Lindén argues.
      Maria Kaisa Aula, the Ombudsman for Children in Finland, is urging parents to file an official complaint to the Ministry of Communications, if an episode of the prime-time show Salatut elämät has contained material that is not appropriate considering the time when it is screened.
     
Child psychotherapist Mirjam Kalland says that the ability of children to understand the difference between fact and fiction is not a constant.
      In addition, children and even adults tend to identify themselves with the characters of a series.
      ”The process leads to a situation in which people no longer distinguish an actor or actress from his or her character in a show, even though even a 12-year-old child should be able to understand that a given series is fiction”, Kalland argues.
      According to Kalland, a strong reaction to the events of a television show indicates that people have identified themselves with the characters of the series and that the events have been too violent. It is also bound to reflect the fact that the broadcasting slot is wrong.
     
To some extent, the discussion caused by the cliff-hanger last episode of Salatut elämät came as a surprise to Sarita Harma, the Head of Drama at MTV3.
      ”We always receive plenty of feedback about the show from all directions. We believed that the last episode would cause discussion, as the tensions and turn of events are so dramatic. However, some of the feedback is surprising, as apparently some people commenting on the episode have not seen it at all. They think that it contained issues that did not actually happen. Nobody died, nor was anybody buried alive”, argues Harma.
      Harma notes further that discussions themselves are always welcome, but people should argue about the right issues, while they should also expand their discussions to cover the media in general.


Links:
  Ministry of Transport and Communications
  Ombudsman for Children in Finland
  Salatut elämät (Wikipedia)
  Madventures (Wikipedia)

Helsingin Sanomat