Entertainment+Education


 * Definition**

The term //entertainment education// (EE) is formed from the words //entertainment// and //education//. According to the //Oxford English Dictionary//, the word //entertain// comes from the Latin //inter// (among) + //tenēre// (to hold) (Entertain, 1989) and the word //educate// comes from the Latin //ē//- (ex-) + //dūcere// (to lead) (Educate, 2012). Thus, EE can mean “commanding the attention of the audience while encouraging their growth and development” (Fossard, 2005, p. 26).

EE has gone under other names, such as enter-educate, edutainment, and infotainment, but after the 1990s, the term EE became widely used (Singhal & Rogers, 1999). Singhal and Rogers defined EE as follows: “EE is the process of purposely designing and implementing a media message to both entertain and educate in order to increase audience members’ knowledge about an educational issue, create favorable attitude, shift social norms, and change the overt behavior of individuals and communities” (Singhal & Rogers, 1999. p. 9). EE is not a communication theory but a “communication strategy” intended to create a positive change among intended audiences (Singhal & Rogers, 2004. p. 5).


 * History of EE**

Although embedding an educational message in entertainment is not new, EE is a relatively new concept in that it relies on the use of mass media such as radio and television (Singhal & Rogers, 1999). The first EE was a radio soap opera, //Ybe Ambers//, which was aired by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in 1951; it included messages about agricultural development. In addition, one Jamaican radio station broadcast serials with messages about development issues such as family planning in the late 1950s (Singhal & Rogers, 1999).

On television, //Simplemente Maria//, a telenovela (soap opera) that aired in 1969 in Peru, is said to have been the first to employ an EE strategy. Maria, the main character, moved to the capital city, worked hard, and achieved upward mobility. Her success influenced poor and working class women in Latin America and led many to enroll in literacy and sewing classes as the character did in the telenovela (Singhal & Rogers, 1999).

Influenced by the success of //Simplemente Maria,// Mexican producer Miguel Sabido developed a methodology for EE and produced seven EE soap operas, which were both educational and commercially successful. After that, institutions like Population Communication International (PCO) and Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Communication Program (JHU/CCP) spread EE to many countries, including India, Kenya, and Tanzania (Singhal & Rogers, 1999). Numerous organizations (e.g., Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and almost every nation are now adopting EE strategies (Singhal & Rogers, 2004).

Among many EE projects, //Soul City//, a media campaign started in 1992 for health promotion and social issues such as HIV prevention, condom use, and prevention of violence against women in South Africa, is considered as exemplar (Singhal & Rogers, 1999). The program brought about desirable changes at both the community and the individual level (Goldstein, Usdin, Scheepers, & Japhet, 2005).


 * EE in the United States**

In the United States, producer Norman Lear’s sitcom //All in the Family// dealt with social issues of the 1970s, and its spin-off //Maude//’s episodes about abortion created controversy (Montgomery, 1989). The //Harvard Alcohol Project// used prime time programming to promote the designated driver concept in the late 1980s and, as a result, within one year, there was a 10% increase in the ratio of people who reported that they and their friends mostly used a designated driver (Winsten & Dejong, 2001). //Sesame Street//, an educational program for preschoolers, is also an exceptional example of successful EE. //Cancion de la Raza// (Song of the People) and //Que Pasa, USA?// (What’s Happening, USA?) were specifically designed to address ethnic populations, Mexican Americans and Cuban Americans, respectively (Singhal & Rogers, 1999).


 * Research on EE**

Research has found that EE can influence viewers. For example, exposure to the medical drama //ER// affected knowledge and awareness about emergency contraception and the human papilloma virus (Brodie et al., 2001), attitudes and behavior change regarding hypertension (Valente et al., 2007), and intention to get screened for syphilis (Whittier, Kennedy, St. Lawrence, Seeley, & Beck, 2005). In addition, a condom-efficacy message in an episode of //Friends// was effective in teaching teens about sex (Collins, Elliott, Berry, Kanouse, & Hunter, 2003). The number of calls to the National STD and AIDS Hotline dramatically increased after the daytime soap opera //The Bold & Beautiful// featured HIV prevention messages (Kennedy, O’Leary, Beck, Pollard, & Simpson, 2004).


 * Underlying Processes**

EE messages are more effective than traditional persuasive messages because viewers are involved with their narrative structure (Moyer-Gusé, 2008). This involvement with narrative is often called //transportation// (Green & Brock, 2000). Furthermore, viewers are involved not only with the storyline, but also with the characters. Moyer-Gusé (2008) identified five types of involvement: //identification with characters//, //wishful identification// (a viewer wishes to be like the character), //similarity// (the extent to which a viewer feels that he or she is similar to the character), //parasocial// interaction (a pseudo relationship between a viewer and a media figure), and //liking// (having a positive attitude toward the character) (Moyer-Gusé, 2008). The most frequently employed theory to explain EE is social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986, 2004). According to the theory, people learn by observing others’ action and its outcome, and this observational learning is motivated by outcome expectancies and self-efficacy (Bandura, 2004). Therefore, a person who observes a model whose behavior is rewarded is more likely to model that behavior. Similarly, observing an accomplishment of a model similar to a viewer can increase the viewer’s self-efficacy and self-confidence to perform the behavior (Bandura, 2004). In addition, the extended elaboration likelihood model (Slater & Rouner, 2002) posits that a viewer’s engagement in the narrative and identification with characters reduces counterarguing. Moyer-Gusé (2008) extended these theories and developed the entertainment overcoming resistance model. The model illustrates how each type of involvement (e.g., //identification//, //similarity//) overcomes various types of resistance and thus leads to attitudes and behaviors consistent with EE.

Written by Jiyoung Chae (August 2012).

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 * References**

Bandura, A. (1986). //Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory//. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Bandura, A. (2004). Social cognitive theory for personal and social change by enabling media. In A. Singhal, M. J. Cody, E. M. Rogers, & M. Sabido (Eds.), //Entertainment-education and social change: History, research, and practice// (pp. 75-96). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Brodie, M., Foehr, U., Rideout, V., Baer, N., Miller, C., Flournoy, R., & Altman, D. (2001). Communicating health information though the entertainment media: A study of the television drama ER lends support to the notion that Americans pick up information while being entertained. //Health Affairs, 20//, 192-199. Collins, R. L., Elliott, M. N., Berry, S. H., Kanouse, D. E., & Hunter, S. B. (2003) Entertainment television as a healthy sex educator: The impact of condom-efficacy information in an episode of Friends. //Pediatrics, 112// (5). 1115 -1121.

Educate. (2012). In //Oxford English Dictionary//. Retreived July 10, 2012, from [|http://www.oed.com.proxy2.library.illinois.edu/view/Entry/59580?rskey=Ft2mO9&result=2#eid]

Entertain. (1989). In //Oxford English Dictionary//. Retreived July 10, 2012, from http://www.oed.com.proxy2.library.illinois.edu/view/Entry/62849?rskey=demXBB&result=2#eid Fossard, De Esta(2005). //Writing and producing Radio Dramas//. Sage Publications. New Delhi.

Singhal, A. & Rogers, E. M. (1999). //Entertainment-education: a communication strategy for social change//. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Goldstein, S., Usdin, S., Scheepers, E., & Japhet, G. (2005). Communicating HIV and AIDS, what works?: A report on the impact evaluation of Soul City’s fourth series. //Journal of Health Communication, 10// (5), 465-483.

Hether, H. J., Huang, G. C., Beck, V., Murphy, S. T., & Valente, T. W. (2008). Entertainment-education in a media-saturated environment: Examining the impact of single and multiple exposures to breast cancer storylines on two popular medical dramas. //Journal of Health Communication, 13//(8), 808-823. Kennedy, M. G., O’Leary, A., Beck, V., Pollard, K., & Simpson, P. (2004). Increases in calls to the CDC national STD and AIDS Hotline following AIDS-related episodes in a soap opera. //Journal of Communication, 54// (2), 287–301.

Montgomery, K. (1989). //Target : Prime time//. New York : Oxford University Press. Moyer-Gusé, E. (2008), Toward a theory of entertainment persuasion: explaining the persuasive effects of entertainment-education messages. //Communication Theory, 18//, 407–425.

Slater, M. D., & Rouner, D. (2002). Entertainment-education and elaboration likelihood: understanding the processing of narrative persuasion. //Communication Theory, 12//(2), 173-191.

Singhal, A. & Rogers, E. M. (2004). The status of entertainment-education worldwide. In A. Singhal, M. J. Cody, E. M. Rogers, & M. Sabido (Eds.), //Entertainment-education and social change: History, research, and practice// (pp. 3-20). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Valente, T. W., Murphy, S., Huang, G., Gusek, J., Greene, J., Beck, V. (2007). Evaluating a minor storyline on ER about teen obesity, hypertension, and 5 a day. //Journal of Health Communication, 12//(6), 551-566. Whittier, D. K., Kennedy, M. G., St. Lawrence, J. S., Seeley, S., & Beck, V. (2005). Embedding health messages into entertainment television: Effect on gay men’s response to a syphilis outbreak. //Journal of Health Communication, 10//(3), 251-259. Winsten, J. A. & Dejong, W. (2001). The designated driver campaign. In R.E. Rice, and C. Atkins (Eds.), //Public communication campaigns// (pp. 290-294). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications