So this is my last blog of the semester. .. and it’s also the largest amount of material for one blog thus far. Thanksgiving definitely gets in the way of things. Fortunately enough, however, one of my favorite topics of the semester was covered in our most recent readings for this week: health communication and entertainment education. Although we didn’t have time to discuss these readings in class, I’m going to do my best to discuss some of the points in our readings that stand out to me as essential in the success of such campaigns and endeavors. I will not discuss all of the factors that are brought up, but I will highlight those that I personally think are especially critical.
First, I think it’s important to note that a common theme in both the Vijay and Singhal/ Rogers readings was the need to focus on contextual, communal, and cultural needs in such efforts. Simply focusing on the individual, or, as I discussed in my previous blog post, formulating a message and sending it out without considering the receiver(s) or their environment and viewpoint(s), is naïve. It’s critical to understand that that a person is part of a community, a culture, and a worldview that will influence their opinions, openness, and overall reception to messages and ideas. There are implications for, as discussed in our readings, discussing sexual content or specific diseases. You must include an audience in the formation, development, and use of a message. Some cultures are family-focused, others have development needs, and some are individualistic and some collectivistic… these are just a few of the multitude of complex layers a target-group can possess.
An additional focus that can be taken from this first theme of community and cultural differences and needs is the need to choose proper mediums to reach a population. Some populations respond best to radio dramas while others like watching reality tv. Groups differ based on their access to medias and their favoritism of specific forms of media based on cultural and social preferences, among others. It takes an educated, aware, and knowledgeable group of individuals to form a successful campaign or program.
Another important factor that I think is definitely worth mentioning, is Singhal/ Rogers’ discussion of the different types of behavior change. There are many levels of behavior changes that should be considered when forming a message. What do you want the outcome to be? What and who do you want to target? What do you need to do to accomplish these goals overall? I think that the theoretical framework as discussed by Vijay is especially crucial when looking at this focus since, as shown by various theories such as the Theory of Reasoned Action, Theory of Planned Behavior, etc. that there are specific factors such as subjective norms, perceived self-efficacy, perception of threat severity, etc. that need to be considered.
Although there are other topics breached such as the types of research that should be conducted (both qualitatively and quantitatively), more in depth discussions of resistance to entertainment-education, competition to be heard in a world of endless competing messages, among others, I think that these topics I highlighted, community/ culture, media used to spread a message, and types of behavior change, are the most important factors future health campaigns, entertainment education programs, and researchers should focus on.
I’m definitely excited to continue exploring these topics beyond the conclusion of this class!
I think you touch upon some very important topics, first and foremost the cross-cultural importance and also it importance of choosing the right media and in some cases media might not even work at all. What is important to recognize too that I though was evident in the case study of India is that somethings health communication that's used through entertainment programs is not targeting the people "at the bottom of the scale", or at least it's hard to measure the success. In this case the focus group was people that responded by mail (what would be interesting and important is to see the effect of those people that are illiterate).
ReplyDeleteAnother important factor that you bring up is that of how the culture is structured and I think that when it comes to talking about (especially) STD's in many different parts of the world there isn't a dialogue between men and women. One way to change the discourse might be through entertainment education programs!
I agree with Lina in that you touch upon important topics from these readings.
ReplyDeleteThe questions of Singhal and Rogers that I found most interesting: “Does the educational function, if creatively incorporated, enhance the entertainment function? If Hollywood finds that it can enhance entertainment value through creative incorporation content, will it embrace E-E?”
If we look at the Biggest Loser, as we discussed in class, the show’s popularity could come from its reality format, or it could be that are people interested because it provides health education on the major health risks of obesity and gives people tips on how to fight it.
As Singhal and Rogers suggest, more investigations should focus on production process to include health communication experts and creative people in order to produce E-E that is popular and effective.
Hillary, great summary of the high points. I also thought that levels of behavioral change was a really important point that these authors made as well as Frank & Chaudhuri.
ReplyDeleteThey addressed the group norms and cultural norms of talking about sex or sexual health issues within different parts/groupings of society.
This links to Allison's point about Hollywood. This is a little cheesy but I wonder if "Sex and the City" has changed cultural norms here about the level of comfort that women in the US now have about discussing sex and sexual health issues among friends? Has it had a positive effect on women's health?
I'm going to jump on the comment bandwagon here, Hilary, and say that you've chosen some great points from the readings to highlight the complexity of forming a relevant, coherent message for entertainment education. This goes beyond finding a relevant medium to reach an audience, but also focusing on culturally appropriate messages. Looking at the US audience, I think Allison brings in an interesting point--and a lot of US shows targeted toward teenagers do this, increasing the drama and entertainment values of shows by subtly bringing in educational aspects (these are mostly related to health and gender issues, like HIV, sexual assault, etc). Just to be a total nerd, the 1990s show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" was often praised for its use of fantastic and extreme storylines as metaphors for relatable high school problems--the audience was at times almost subconsciously being shown how to deal with their issues.
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