Soap Operas Send Educational Messages to
Global Audiences
Though
television has been criticized in recent
years for promoting sex and violence, an
Ohio University researcher has found that
soap operas in developing nations are
making a positive impact, encouraging
audiences to adopt more progressive
attitudes and behaviors toward gender
equality, HIV prevention, adult literacy
and other social issues.
Arvind
Singhal is an Ohio University associate
professor of interpersonal communication
and co-author of the book
"Entertainment-Education: A Communication
Strategy for Society Change."
Though
past studies have focused solely on
measuring the impacts of
entertainment-education programs,
Singhal's book also explains why the shows
cause audience members to change attitudes
and practices.
Governments
in countries such as India, China, Mexico
and Peru have successfully blended
educational messages into engaging
television or radio soap operas to inspire
social change.
Singhal's
studies, which have been published and
presented for professional audiences,
found that such motivational programs
affected mainly individual, short-term
behavior changes, prompted by viewers'
identification with story characters whom
they saw as role models.
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full
text of this news release.
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