Entertainment-Education (EE) is a communication strategy that aims to alleviate a social issue or educate the public through a custom-tailored piece of entertainment. It is defined by a set of techniques and methodologies which all aim to use various levels of mass media to communicate social and behavior change. On the impact-entertainment spectrum, EE is balanced between

social impact entertainment Social Impact Entertainment (SIE) is "all storytelling that is self-aware of its potential impact on its audiences and incorporates that knowledge to effect positive change at the individual, local, or global scale on one or more social issues"'',' ...

(SIE) and social and behavior change communication (SBCC). The primary distinction that can be drawn to SIE is that in Entertainment-Education, the "impact issue" usually comes first; the characters and story are built around the issue. In SIE, the story usually originates projects, and impact issues are woven into or extracted out of an existing narrative. As of 2009, Entertainment-Education is defined as: ''"a theory-based communication process for purposefully embedding educational and social issues in the creation, production, processing and dissemination process of an entertainment program, in order to achieve desired individual, community, institutional, and societal changes among the intended media user population."''

History

In 1950, the UK-based radio soap opera

The Archers ''The Archers'' is a BBC radio drama on BBC Radio 4, the corporation's main spoken-word channel. Broadcast since 1951, it was famously billed as "an everyday story of country folk" and is now promoted as "a contemporary drama in a rural sett ...

broke ground by being specifically designed to educate the British people about farming issues and to help increase productivity in the

postwar era In Western world, Western usage, the phrase post-war era (or postwar era) usually refers to the time since the end of World War II. More broadly, a post-war period (or postwar period) is the interval immediately following the end of a war. A po ...

rationing Rationing is the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, services, or an artificial restriction of demand. Rationing controls the size of the ration, which is one's allowed portion of the resources being distributed on a particular ...

and food shortages. It is the longest-running Soap Opera in the world, and is still broadcast today with millions of listeners.

Miguel Sabido Miguel Sabido (born 1937) is a producer, writer, researcher, and theorist, known for pioneering Entertainment-Education, developing the " Theory of the Tone", and producing a number of commercially successful telenovelas for Televisa in the 1970s. ...

, a Mexican TV producer, further formalized the field. He initially called it "Entertainment with a proven social benefit" in the 1960s, which

Everett Rogers Everett M. "Ev" Rogers (March 6, 1931 – October 21, 2004) was an American communication theorist and sociologist, who originated the ''diffusion of innovations'' theory and introduced the term '' early adopter''. He was distinguished professor e ...

re-branded as "Entertainment and Education" in 1979, and Patrick Coleman simplified as "Entertainment-Education", which is the presently used term. While the field has evolved in the last 50 years, it is still strongly based on Sabido's specific approach. Nowadays, many practitioners in Entertainment-Education come from a background of

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the det ...

health communication Health communication is the study and practice of communicating promotional health information, such as in public health campaigns, health education, and between doctor and patient. The purpose of disseminating health information is to influence ...

and behavior change communication. Sabido pioneered his method in 1967 by leveraging the Mexican tabloid '' Casos de Alarma'' to encourage readers to join the social security system of Mexico. The release of the Peruvian telenovela ''Simplemente María'' (1969) validated his assumptions about using mass media for social change, as the sale of sewing machines increased dramatically after the telenovela aired. Sabido went on to produce '' Ven conmigo'', which was widely successful with a 32 point share and resulted in a million people enrolling in the adult education system of Mexico after the series' 1-year runtime. The Sabido-produced, family planning-themed telenovelas '' Acompáñame'', ''

Vamos juntos ''Vamos juntos'' is a Mexican telenovela produced by Irene Sabido for Televisa in 1979. Cast *Silvia Derbez as Lupe Pistolas *Anita Blanch as Rosa *Macaria as María Elena *Carlos Piñar as Claudio *Enrique Rocha as Juan Cristobal *Paola Jim� ...

'', ''

caminemos ''Caminemos'' (English title: ''Let's walk'') is a Mexican telenovela produced by Irene Sabido for Televisa in 1980. Cast *Irma Lozano as Eudelia/Evelia *Enrique Lizalde as Ricardo *Marga López as Aurora *Norma Lazareno as Adelina *Jaime Gar ...

'' and ''

Nosotros los Mujeres Spanish personal pronouns have distinct forms according to whether they stand for the subject (nominative) or object, and third-person pronouns make an additional distinction for direct object (accusative) or indirect object (dative), and for r ...

'' followed soon after in the 1970s, which collectively resulted in a 34 percent decline of the population growth rate of Mexico. The

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

awarded Mexico with their Population Prize after that run;

United States Agency for International Development The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With a budget of over $27 b ...

's Thomas Donnelly wrote: "''The Televisa family planning soap operas have made the single most powerful contribution to the Mexican population success story.''"

David Poindexter David Poindexter (January 30, 1929 – February 8, 2018) was the founder of Population Communications International, a Methodist minister, and a TV producer. After receiving a master's degree in theology and serving as a pastor for 8 years in Po ...

of Population Communications International saw great promise in this approach, and introduced him to US-American psychologist

Albert Bandura Albert Bandura (; December 4, 1925 – July 26, 2021) was a Canadian-American psychologist who was the David Starr Jordan Professor in Psychology at Stanford University. Bandura was responsible for contributions to the field of education and to ...

. Bandura was able to explain some of Sabido's enormous impact through his

social learning theory Social learning is a theory of learning process social behavior which proposes that new behaviors can be acquired by observing and imitating others. It states that learning is a cognitive process that takes place in a social context and can occu ...

and later went on to publish many papers on the effects of serial (radio and television) dramas. In a series of strategic meetings in the 1970s and 80s, Poindexter invited Sabido to teach his method world-wide in India, China, the Philippines, Egypt, and the Netherlands. Together with

Sonny Fox Irwin "Sonny" Fox (June 17, 1925 – January 24, 2021) was an American television host and broadcaster who was the host of the children's television program, ''Wonderama''. Through his career, he had hosted other children's educational and ent ...

, the president of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, they then organized so-called "Soap Summits" that brought together the CEOs of large American broadcasters, as well as introduce American TV writers to the methods of Entertainment-Education. SBCC Summit 2018 Crowd in Nusa Dua, Indonesia

SBCC Summit 2018 Crowd in Nusa Dua, Indonesia

Since the early days in the 1980s, a number of organizations have flourished, led by Poindexter-heritage non-profits PCI Media and

Population Media Center Population Media Center (PMC) is an entertainment organization dedicated to women's rights and empowerment, population stabilization, and the environment. PMC's TV and radio shows have promoted important social and cultural changes and have helped ...

on the actively producing side, jointly having made 140 shows that reached more than 2 Billion people and had enormous impact on

prevention of HIV/AIDS HIV prevention refers to practices that aim to prevent the spread of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). HIV prevention practices may be undertaken by individuals to protect their own health and the health of those in their community, or may ...

, family planning and

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...

. In an effort to systematize health communications in Hollywood content and under leadership of Sonny Fox and Norman Lear, the

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency, under the Department of Health and Human Services, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgi ...

teamed up with

USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism The USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism comprises a School of Communication and a School of Journalism at the University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = N ...

, jointly creating Hollywood, Health and Society. HH&S advises

Writers Guild of America West The Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) is a labor union representing film, television, radio, and new media writers. It was formed in 1954 from five organizations representing writers, including the Screen Writers Guild. It has around 20,000 mem ...

writers in the inclusion of health-related topics in mainstream television and film.

References

{{Reflist, 30em Communication design

History

See also

References