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To explain attitudinal and behavioral changeassociated with EE projects, scholars have drawnon traditional behavior change theories from thediscipline of psychology. Bandura’s SocialCognitive Theory has been used as a starting pointfor those theorizing about the field. Bandura saysthat “by observing the performance of actors,audience members can experience strong emo-tional reactions, acquire new thought patternsand values and change their behavior...especiallyif the models exhibit new patterns of thoughtand behavior which is rewarded...” (1985).However, according to panelist Larry Kincaid(USA), there are limitations to Bandura’s work.

Change Characters to Change AudienceBehavior

Presenting a paper titled “Convergence Theoryof the Effects of Observational Learning from aSerial Drama,” Kincaid pointed out that socialdramas normally consist of many different char-acters, each of which models different, often con-tradictory, behavior and values. Processes ofselective attention, selective perception, andselective recall imply that many audience mem-bers will simply have their existing patterns ofthought and behavior reinforced by their pre-ferred characters.

The convergence theory of communicationis based on the theorem that over time, beliefsand behavior of individuals who share the sameinformation will converge toward a state ofgreater cultural uniformity. However, the infor-mation to which individuals are exposed isbounded by their communication networks and

by selective exposure and perception. This theoryis thus more useful to explain why behavior haschanged after a campaign.

Furthermore, multiple models and unclearboundary conditions make it difficult or impos-sible to predict in advance which members andhow many members of an audience will changetheir behavior, said Kincaid. He noted that oneway to overcome these limitations is to deter-mine which characters in the drama differentmembers will identify with. This is based on thetheory of psychological identification whichoffers a way to identify which audience memberswill be affected by which characters in a drama,thus offering script writers clues for developingplots for maximum impact.

Kincaid used the Nepalese serial radio dramaCut Your Coat According to Your Cloth as anexample of how the theory could be tested. Hisexample demonstrated how the measurement ofcognitive image, i.e., the association betweencharacters and attributes, could be used to studythe impact of a drama on the audience. Usingmultidimensional scaling (MDS), it is possible toshow audience’s perceived similarity of charac-ters, measurement of beliefs, value of attributes,identification with each character, and emotionalempathy with characters. He concluded thatmethods for measuring cognitive image by meansof classical MDS are capable of capturing themain elements of identification, observationallearning, and the cognitive and cultural conver-gence of audience members.

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Monkey See, Monkey DoResearch Panel: “Challenges in Entertainment-Education Theory”

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Future Research Needs

Panelist Suruchi Sood (USA) elaborated on theuse of audience involvement to understand howEE works. According to Sood, audience involve-ment is understood as the degree to which anindividual actively participates in decoding amedia message. It is a complex theoretical con-struct, but simply defined as “the degree towhich audience members engage in reflectionupon, and parasocial interaction with, certainmedia programs, thus resulting in overt behaviorchange.”

Sood outlined various recommendations forfuture research. Research on audience involve-ment could refine the elements of audienceinvolvement (e.g., researchers could hypothesizeabout the relationship between identification

with characters and the prosocial and antisocialqualities exhibited by the characters in a mediaprogram). She noted that research efforts shouldutilize diverse data sources such as sense-makingand reception analysis techniques and that it maybe useful to look at each discrete dimension ofaudience involvement as well as how they inter-act with each other. Because the process of audi-

ence involvement is important to understand,the antecedents and consequences should also beanalysed (e.g., exposure to a media program).According to Sood, research is also needed onthe affective nature of messages and the responsesthey generate, as well as the cognitive processthrough which information is processed by audi-ences. Finally, research efforts should focus onthe influence of culture on patterns of behavior.

Soaps May Provide Role Models forBehavior Change

EE programs are designed to influence interper-sonal behaviour. However, panelist PeterVaughan (USA) pointed out that people are fre-quently reluctant to discuss this behavior for per-sonal or cultural reasons. Vaughan presented apaper titled “The Power of Talk: UsingEntertainment Education to Stimulate

Interpersonal Communication as a steptowards Adoption of Interpersonal

Behaviour Change.” His paper isbased on data from EE radio soapoperas that promote family planningand HIV/AIDS prevention inTanzania, India, and St. Lucia.

Vaughan said that the lack of dis-cussion forms a barrier to behaviour

adoption even if both partners approve ofthe behaviour change. He proposed that EE soapoperas may provide a way to increase communi-cation between people by providing role modelsthat demonstrate how an individual could initi-ate and conduct such a discussion, or increase aviewer’s self-efficacy by demonstrating that indi-viduals similar to the viewer have had, and bene-fited from such discussions.

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“It’s the dramaticappeal that leads to

audience involvement.A very important mecha-nism through which EEhas its effects is getting peo-ple to talk about the issue.

So it is audience involve-ment that actually leads

to changes in behavior.”

Everett Rogers

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Choose Celebrities Wisely

William Brown (USA) presented a paper titled“Star Light Star Bright: The Potential ofCelebrity Identification for EntertainmentEducation,” co-authored with Benson P. Fraser(USA). Brown presented a theoretical frameworkfor understanding the influence of celebrities aspart of the fabric of social culture, also recogniz-ing the potential benefits of involving celebritiesin EE. There was much theoretical discourse onidentification, described by Kelman (1961) asone of three processes of social influence inwhich a person adopts the behaviour of anotherbecause of an actual or perceived relationshipwith that person. Celebrity identification wasdefined by Brown as “the process by whichmedia consumers seek to adopt the values,beliefs, or behaviour of well-known public fig-ures or popular media characters in order toemulate their perceived image or accentuate theirparasocial relationship with the celebrity.” Brownconcluded that celebrities should be carefullyscreened before chosen for use in an EE cam-paign, though when used properly they can bean effective medium for the transmission ofsocial change messages.

Theory Meets World

Clearly, the EE strategy is based on a multidisci-plinary theoretical framework, with a recognitionthat approaches should be both method and the-ory driven. However, participants in the sessionacknowledged that there are gaps in and limita-tions to existing theories, and that steps need tobe taken beyond mere theory.

Sergio Alarcon (Mexico) challenged EEscholars to help practitioners sell EE projects.Alarcon pointed out that we need more statisticalevidence to prove to television networks that EE

“works and it doesn’t hurt ratings.” He said that“the name of the game is ratings, sales, andadvertising,” and despite the fact that the telen-ovela Simplemente Maria was used to sell prod-ucts such as sewing machines, commercial mediastill turns to “entertainment-degradation” pro-grams to increase ratings.

Michael Cody (USA) also pointed out thatcurrent theoretical debates in EE do notacknowledge the substantial resistance to thefield. We should remember that we can theorizeas much as we like, said Cody, but that there arecounter-strategies that may negate our efforts.

Cody noted that practitioners of EE need todevelop a theory exclusively for EE. Until now,he said, we have used Sabido’s theory togetherwith classic social psychological theories, adapt-ing these to EE. Cody also pointed out that pan-elists represented a Western approach and thatreviews from people from countries outside theUnited States should be encouraged.

Where Shall We Go From Here?

So what is the future of EE? Where do all thesetheoretical considerations leave us? VibertCambridge (USA) concluded the session with aninteresting proposal: “We must draw on theglobal communication capacity,” he suggested,“and create a 24 hour, 7 day a week EE televisionchannel. The programs are there, and so is thebroadcasting capacity. We do not even have tocreate it all ourselves, but should use what isavailable for us. Instead of having programs airedonce or twice in any one particular country, wecan thus repurpose a product and explorenotions of cultural shareability.”

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