Applying Encoding/Decoding Hollyoaks is a soap opera. It is broadcast daily at 18.00 on Channel 4 and an omnibus repeats all of the episodes on Channel 4’s: T4 Sunday. It is about the lives of teens and young adults that live in a small village next to the city of Chester. It typically centres on themes of difficulties surrounding young adult life, but occasionally has fairly extreme plots involving murder, kidnap, death and family betrayal. The target audience reflects the age and interests (if not necessarily the lifestyles) of the main characters in the soap. Preferred: The target audience would accept the assumptions and beliefs shared by the soap. That being a teen or young adult is as tough as it is fun. They would accept that relationships both sexual and platonic are central to life at this age and that if the wrong decisions are made then this can cause disastrous consequences. The preferred reading would be to accept that whilst life is for living - tragedy can be just around the corner and that you should live for the moment. However, there would also be an understanding that if you let your instincts take over to the point where you betray those close to you, then something bad will almost certainly happen in your life.