telenovela

right|250px|thumb|Vida Alves and Walter Forster on [[Sua Vida Me Pertence (Rede Tupi, Brazil, 1951), the first telenovela in television history]] A telenovela is a type of a television serial drama or soap opera produced primarily in Latin America. The word is a portmanteau of tele (for "television") and novela (meaning "novel"). Similar drama genres around the world include dizi (Turkey), serial (India), teleserye (Philippines), lakorn (Thailand), '' (Italy), téléroman (Canada, specifically Quebec), K-drama (South Korea), J-drama (Japan), C-drama'' (China) and ' (Indonesia).

Commonly described using the American colloquialism Spanish soap opera', many telenovelas share some stylistic and thematic similarities to the soap opera familiar to the English-speaking world. The significant difference is their series run length; telenovelas tell one self-contained story, typically within the span of a year or less whereas soap operas tend to have intertwined storylines told during indefinite, continuing runs. This makes them shorter than most other television series, but still much longer than a miniseries. This planned run results in a faster-paced, more concise style of melodrama compared to a typical soap opera. Episodes of telenovelas usually last between 30 and 45 minutes, and rarely more than an hour, except for final episodes. The telenovela combines drama with the 19th century feuilleton'' and the Latin American radionovela. The medium has been used frequently in various countries to transmit sociocultural messages by incorporating them into storylines.