Friday, November 6, 2015

Yo No Creo En Los Hombres on Twitter


After working on the consumption presentations, I found myself even more intrigued with social media and how it affects consumption of particular telenovelas. My telenovela, Yo no creo en los hombres, aired in 2014 so it is very recent and has sparked a lot of discussion on a variety of social media platforms. Social media provides an opportunity for telenovela viewers to discuss, contemplate, argue and comment on telenovelas. It also gives the networks and production companies an opportunity to interact with their fans as well, giving them a chance to respond to comments and instigate discussions.

As my consumption presentation group quickly found out, Yo no creo en los hombres does in fact fall into the “Rosa” category; however, it also breaks the mold a little bit by having an atypical ending to the love story as well as the inclusion of more relevant topics and social issues. As a result, the “Rosa” aspects of the telenovela definitely draw viewers in and the realistic part of the telenovela encourages viewers to discuss social issues that relate to current cultural attitudes.

Below I have pulled several screenshots of tweets that I found on Twitter. They are fairly recent; however, they illustrate the variety of conversations going on about the airing of Yo no creo en los hombres. I have chosen to focus on tweets because I think it’s a very interesting platform, one that has really taken off in recent years. Blogs are also a major platform for writing lengthier comments that facilitate more complex debates.

In some of the other groups’ consumption presentations, I noticed that Twitter typically served as a quick way for viewers to post an opinion about a love story or post a photo of an attractive character. Often, the posts were very superficial. However, I have found that Yo no creo en los hombres is a perfect balance of a telenovela rosa and one that is both realistic and relatable. People enjoy posting their thoughts on social media and below I am going to discuss a few different themes that I noticed on Twitter.

1.     Villains
As one of the consumption teams noted, villains are special characters as they intrigue viewers for many reasons. First, people may find their secret desires lived out in the fictitious lives of the villains. And second, people love to hate villains. In Yo no creo en los hombres, it is clear that Josefa has taken over one of the main antagonist roles and people love her for it.


2.     Atypical love story
Yo no creo en los hombres falls under the telenovela rosa category due to its central love story. However, there are many ways that the telenovela maintains a very realistic and relatable attitude throughout as well, making it even more appealing to viewers. In this particular love story, there is a happily ever after, which is a characteristic attributed to typical rosa stories. However, the happily ever after story has a more realistic ending, with the couple having to overcome the major challenge of María Dolores being in jail.


3.     Telenovela Rosa – Love triangles
Love triangles are normally present in telenovela rosas and in Yo no creo en los hombres, there are several. Viewers enjoy love triangles because they are complex and they can get emotionally invested in the people involved. From this tweet, you can see how love triangles keep viewers interested in the story, wanting to watch more and more.



4.     Domestic abuse and harassment
Finally, domestic abuse is an issue that Yo no creo en los hombres tosses around in several of the plotlines and among specific characters. For example, María Dolores works at a sewing shop under a man named Jacinto who frequently harasses her. She ends up having to stand up for herself by going to a lawyer, an act that many female viewers of the telenovela were proud of.



Overall, I thought each of these tweets was interesting as each one highlights a unique element of the telenovela that viewers consume. Whether it’s the crazy villain or the issue of domestic violence, viewers are consuming these themes and voicing their opinions on social media.

2 comments:

  1. The relations between social media and overall media consumption is very interesting. Even outside of the realm of telenovelas, social media has a HUGE impact on what we watch and read—so much so that it can be somewhat difficult to fathom a world prior to the fact!

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  2. I love that you point out how the writer used the Rosa aspects of the telenovela to draw the audience in, because as we've seen, the love stories definitely do that. But then they also use social issues and political aspects to make statements that they believe are important to discuss. I think that telenovelas are an incredible medium across the globe for exactly this reason. People love the drama and the love stories so much. I believe that society has evolved enough, though, that we will also appreciate stances in telenovelas for specific social issues.

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