FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 29, 2001

Entertainment with Social Message Spreads Worldwide

Delivering Health Messages Through Mass Media Now a More Refined Art Form

BALTIMORE—A team of producers, scriptwriters and directors will gather this fall to begin drafting a dramatic series that will appeal to young adults, but the team isn't in Hollywood and the goal isn't ratings or advertising. These scriptwriters will meet in Uganda to craft a show that portrays young adults making healthy decisions about family planning, raising children, and preventing diseases such as malaria and HIV/AIDS.

The Ugandan 13-part serial drama for television is just one example of “Entertainment-Education,” or the practice of using mass entertainment as a vehicle for delivering public health messages. Whether it's a radio show, rock concert, live theater production, local folk media, or television drama, Entertainment-Education has become a standard component of public health communication. The Johns Hopkins University Center for Communication Programs (JHU/CCP), one of the pioneers in the field, will help the Ugandan team develop accurate health messages, while the scriptwriters will make sure the material is entertaining.

“Entertainment-Education has become an accepted public health communication tool because researchers have been able to document its effectiveness,” said Phyllis Tilson Piotrow, Director of JHU/CCP. “We have learned that if you can produce an entertaining soap opera, viewers will remember and identify with characters making important decisions and the consequences of those decisions.”

Experts in the field of Entertainment-Education gathered last year in The Netherlands to discuss its evolution and the impact it can have on social change. JHU/CCP, the Netherlands Entertainment-Education Foundation, and Ohio University have just released the proceedings from the Third International Entertainment-Education Conference for Social Change. Those proceedings include a declaration to continue advancing and expanding the field to benefit society.

“Working collaboratively with entertainment specialists is the best way to develop a quality product that viewers or listeners will remember and, perhaps, act on,” Piotrow said. “We made a commitment in the Netherlands to continue to refine and improve the field as we do our work around the world.”

JHU/CCP helps build the capacities of local organizations in numerous Entertainment-Education projects internationally, including:

• A television variety show in Jordan. Shabab 21 began airing May 5, 2001, on national Jordanian television and is the first variety show with a focus on empowering youth with reproductive health, family planning and life planning information and skills to enable them to make informed decisions as they prepare for the future. The 15-episode series will be broadcast on a weekly basis over 4 months.
• Two TV soap operas in Bangladesh called Shabuj Chaya and Shabuj Shathi.. According to research, both were extremely successful in influencing the audience in the required behavior change. They were each 13 episodes long (20 minutes per episode) and as a result of the success of these dramas (both attracted paid sponsorship), the U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID) has agreed to fund a new 26-episode TV serial this year. The new serial, Eyi Megh, Eyi Roudra (Sometimes Sun; Sometimes Cloud), encourages people to go to either the Green Umbrella or the Smiling Sun clinics for all family health services. The green umbrella and the smiling sun are logos for clinics being run by non-government organizations that are trying to upgrade the skills and practices of health workers.

• Plans for a 13-episode TV serial drama in Pakistan that follows up on the highly successful Aahat, a six-episode series launched in 1991 that is still airing. Current research from Pakistan shows young people need more information about life planning and reproductive health to make better choices and the new show will incorporate those messages.



• A 26-part radio drama serial in development in Ethiopia designed to encourage young married couples to practice family planning and HIV/AIDS prevention.

JHU/CCP is a pioneer in the field of strategic, research-based communication for behavior change and health promotion that has helped transform the theory and practice of public health. With representatives in more than 30 countries, JHU/CCP has been a leader in the development of projects based on systematic needs assessments and clear strategies for positioning and presenting the benefits of health interventions to appropriate audiences. To find out more about JHU/CCP, go to http://www.jhuccp.org. To obtain a copy of the Proceedings from the Third International Entertainment Education Conference for Social Change, please contact Kim Martin at 410 659-6140.

For more information contact: Kim Martin at Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, 111 Market Place, Suite 310, Baltimore, Maryland 21202, USA. Tel: 410 659-6140; Fax: 410 659-6266 e-mail: press@jhuccp.org.

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