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Entertainment-Education for Better Health |
 
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| February 2008 Issue No. 17 |
The INFO Project • Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health • Center for Communication Programs • 111 Market Place, Suite 310 • Baltimore, Maryland 21202, USA • 410-659-6300 • 410-659-6266 (fax) • www.infoforhealth.org • infoproject@jhuccp.org | |
An Approach to Managing Production
by Esta de Fossard*
To be effective, entertainment-education (E-E) should reflect the highest artistic quality. At the same time, it should rely on careful audience research and theories of behavior change. Where the E-E approach is new, specialists usually will be needed to train writers, artists, producers, and actors and perhaps provide ongoing guidance. In time, as they gain experience, all segments of the local communication industry can develop expertise and contribute to E-E programming.
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To be effective, entertainmenteducation should reflect the highest artistic quality. |
Most E-E programs follow the same general process for behavior change communication programs (described in detail in the accompanying issue of Population Reports “Communication for Better Health”). In this discussion the focus is on aspects of the process that are specific to E-E. There are many approaches to producing E-E. Organizations vary in the emphasis they give to audience research or to community involvement, for example. The approach described here has created effective radio and TV dramas in countries throughout the world.
The E-E Manager Guides the Process
Typically, every E-E program requires a manager who has experience with E-E and understands its requirements and challenges. An assistant can help with scheduling and meeting deadlines. The majority, if not all, of the other personnel on the project are usually contracted as needed. The choice of E-E format largely dictates the staffing needs.
Tasks for the E-E manager include:
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Holding an educational design or content harmonization workshop. Here participants decide on the format, educational content, values to be promoted, and the schedule. These decisions are recorded in a design document. The workshop participants typically include specialists in the educational content of the E-E program, members of the audience, the manager of the larger project that the E-E program supports, and researchers. Representatives of government ministries may participate if the ministries are involved or if ministry approval of the programs is required. On the creative side, participants include producers and writers, and artists for comic books, graphic novels, or other print materials. Representatives of funding agencies also may attend to ensure that the design of the project fits the budget. The workshop participants comprise the design team for the project. The person leading the workshop, usually a trained behavior change workshop facilitator, should be highly experienced in communication for behavior change and social change.
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Ensuring community support. The E-E manager determines the type of community support that will best help the program and the community. A good start is to invite community representatives to the design workshop, where they can both contribute to the program and learn how E-E programs are produced. Community representatives can help to define the values to be promoted in a drama and help create the plot and characters. Community health or development workers—who encourage community members to watch or listen to the programs and who may lead group discussions— should participate also, so that they understand the purpose of the drama (27).
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Choosing an appropriate production company. A production company must be able to show success in the media and formats chosen for E-E. If the format is serial drama, for example, prior work with radio or TV newscasts or documentaries is not enough. Experience with drama is essential. If no production company has experience with E-E, then a consultant can be hired to provide training. The production company must guarantee that the educational content in the drama is not altered in any way without the E-E manager’s approval.
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Choosing broadcast outlets that have broad reach and that most of the intended audience listens to or watches. The outlet must also be appropriate for a serious drama. The outlet should be reliable about presenting the E-E programming regularly at the right time for the audience.
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Hiring creative writers with knowledge and experience in E-E writing. Writers can be hired directly by the organization initiating the behavior change project, or they can be subcontracted by the production company. In either case, it is essential that the writers have experience or at least training in writing for E-E. In some cases, inexperienced writers have been able to create successful E-E projects with some guidance from project management. In general, however, if no experienced E-E writers are available, a consultant should be hired to provide training. Writers whose experience is with strictly entertainment formats are accustomed to artistic freedom. E-E writers, however, must be willing to follow the design team’s decisions about the educational content. They must be willing and able to convey the educational content through the plot, dialogue, and character development. Because of the competition from other radio or TV shows, some of which may also present health information, the drama must be of high quality to get and hold the audience’s attention. Among the mistakes that inexperienced writers can make are: Presenting so many messages that audiences become overwhelmed; placing too much emphasis on the educational content and too little on the entertainment; and making the messages too obvious or artificial, instead of weaving them into the story and character development naturally and gradually. While work on an E-E drama can—and often does—advance a writer’s career, E-E writers should acknowledge that the programs they are creating are more important than their personal fame.
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Scheduling all aspects of the E-E project. Production of a TV drama involves the most complex scheduling of any format. In its proposal the production company should include a schedule for all steps, including finding locations for scenes (see the checklist).
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Monitoring quality and accuracy. A review panel chosen by the E-E manager reviews scripts and print materials both for their artistic quality and for the accuracy of the educational content. The review panel should include a topic specialist, an E-E drama specialist, an audience representative and—where necessary—a representative of the appropriate government ministry. All panel members must have attended the design workshop. Also, the E-E manager appoints a “message monitor” to make sure that the educational content is accurate and consistent. The message monitor attends the design workshop and every recording or filming session and reads every publication carefully to ensure that the educational content is correct. The monitoring criteria can be remembered with a formula (see The Formula for effective Entertainment-Education).
The Audience Is Involved
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Members of the intended audience play a key role in preliminary formative research, pretesting, monitoring, and evaluation. |
E-E programming requires that the audience be involved. Members of the intended audience play a key role in preliminary formative research, pretesting, monitoring, and evaluation. As noted above, in the educational design workshop, audience members help to choose formats and determine educational content.
Research leads to knowledge about the audience. Behavior change communication requires thorough understanding of the audience from the start. This is as true for E-E as for any other health communication activity. Especially important is understanding the audience’s current knowledge and behavior concerning the health topic. Their interests, education, and patterns of media use also are important. Therefore, E-E projects begin with formative research, best carried out by a professional research team.
Pretesting materials with the audience ensures that they are appropriate. No matter how carefully prepared, E-E materials always must be pretested with representative members of the audience. For example, it is usual to pretest three episodes of a serial drama to ensure that the audience identifies with the characters and understands the themes. To save money and time with TV shows, pretests can be done with only audio recordings of the episodes or with actors reading the scripts to audience members. Typically, audience members are asked if they:
- Consider the program relevant to their lives.
- Understand the language and appreciate the story (or other format).
- Find the story (or other format) and the characters appealing.
- Recognize the educational content in the programs.
- Consider the educational content important and relevant.
- Consider the role models to be trustworthy.
They may also be asked what changes they might make in their lives because of the drama (26, 28).
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Audience feedback keeps E-E dramas on course and can increase impact. Wherever possible, E-E programs should collect audience responses while the programs are being broadcast. Such monitoring helps ensure that the audience continues to find the material attractive and to understand the educational content. Audience responses can be solicited or unsolicited. One simple way to get direct feedback to a radio or TV program is to ask listeners for comments. In an epilogue at the end of each episode, a host can review the educational content of the show and/or ask for comments or the answers to quiz questions. The answers can come in via mail or e-mail, text messages on mobile phones, a telephone hotline, or on an internet site with a blog. In some remote areas listeners can drop off answers or comments at the local health clinic, where a project representative picks them up.
Comments from the audience are extremely helpful. They reflect what the audience learned, how audience members have changed behavior, and with what consequences (55, 103). Scripts for upcoming episodes can be modified as a result. Fan mail also provides ideas for future episodes (94). Many E-E programs have inspired their audiences to write thousands of letters (10, 55, 70, 94, 109, 112).
* Esta de Fossard has been a consultant on E-E campaigns in dozens of countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. She has written three books on creating E-E dramas for radio and television (26, 27, 28). Drama serves as her main example here.
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