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The Guiding Light (CBS, 1952–present), which began on radio in 1937 and continues on television to this day, is without question the longest formal narrative in human history. Other serialized forms had existed before, including the novel, the comic strip, and the B movie, but none allowed stories of the length and density of the soap opera to play out over generations in real time. The soap opera is arguably the most unique contribution that broadcasting has made to the art of storytelling. Thompson, in Encyclopedia of International Media and Communications, 2003 II The Soap Opera

Although telenovelas have a similar history and common features when compared to soap operas, they are two distinct genres. They have been exported to every continent in the world. ‘Telenovela’ is a term used throughout Latin America to designate the melodramatic serials that became the most popular programs of the television industries of the region, dominating prime-time and commanding the highest advertising rates. Nevertheless, the genre has been characterized by a process of diversification, in which family conflicts are colored by social and political issues. The central elements of the serials' content usually gravitate towards issues such as love, family, intimate relationships and other domestic concerns. When the last daytime serials left radio in the early 1960s, they were already an established form of television programming and advertisers continued to produce soap operas after the transition to television. The soap opera emerged in the US radio industry of the early 1930s when the advertising agencies of the soap, toiletry, and foodstuff industries took on the role of developing programs that could attract a female audience.

‘ Soap operas’ are daytime serials with a dramatic content aimed primarily at a female audience. Porto, in International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2001

A radio or television serial broadcast weekly, daily etc, especially one that continues from year to year, that concerns the daily life, troubles etc of the characters in it.M.P.