The following information comes from http://www.populationmedia.org/what/sabido-method/ Sabido Methodology – Background Share

The Sabido Method is a methodology for designing and producing serialized dramas on radio and television that can win over audiences while imparting prosocial values.

Named after the pioneer in application of this entertainment-education strategy, Miguel Sabido, the Sabido Method is based on character development and plot lines that provide the audience with a range of characters that they can engage with — some good, some not so good — and follow as they evolve and change. Sabido developed this methodology when he was Vice President for Research at Televisa in Mexico in the 1970s.

Change is the key to the Sabido methodology. Characters may begin the series exhibiting the antithesis of the values being taught, but through interaction with other characters, twists and turns in the plot, and sometimes even outside intervention, come to see the value of the program’s underlying message.

This is of course the classic literary device of character growth, but Miguel Sabido developed the process in detail for television in a way that enabled it to tackle the most sensitive of subjects — sex, abortion, family planning, AIDS — in a non-threatening and even enlightening manner. By transmitting values through the growth and development of characters, the Sabido Method manages to simultaneously attract large and faithful audiences and stimulate thoughtful discussions. PMC President Bill Ryerson and Honorary Chair David Poindexter worked with Sabido for decades learning and applying the Sabido Method to programming throughout Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

When Sabido developed his methodology in the 1970′s, he was pioneering in a new pro-social communication model, using telenovelas to promote literacy, family planning and other social development goals. The first novella using the Sabido Method to promote family planning, was Acompaname (“Accompany Me”). Acompaname showed in dramatic terms over the course of the nine-month series the personal benefits of planning one’s family, by focusing on the issue of family harmony. The results of Acompaname, as reported by the Mexican government’s national population council (CONAPO), were:

 Phone calls to the CONAPO requesting family planning information increased from zero to an average of 500 a month. Many people calling mentioned that they were encouraged to do so by the telenovela.

 More than 2,000 women registered as voluntary workers in the national program of family planning. This was an idea suggested in the telenovela.

 Contraceptive sales increased 23% in one year, compared to a seven percent increase the preceding year.

 More than 560,000 women enrolled in family planning clinics, an increase of 33% (compared to a 1% decrease the previous year).

Sabido developed five additional social content telenovelas, which were all broadcast on Televisa: Vamos Juntos (”We Go Together”), Caminemos (”Let’s Walk”), Nosotros las Mujeres (”We the Women”), Por Amor (”For Love”), and Los Hijos de Nadie (”Nobody’s Children”).

During the decade 1977 to 1986, when these Mexican soap operas were on the air, the country experienced a 34% decline in its population growth rate. As a result, in May 1986, the United Nations Population Prize was presented to Mexico as the foremost population success story in the world.

Thomas Donnelly, then with USAID in Mexico, wrote, “Throughout Mexico, wherever one travels, when people are asked where they heard about family planning, or what made them decide to practice family planning, the response is universally attributed to one of the soap operas that Televisa has done. …The Televisa family planning soap operas have made the single most powerful contribution to the Mexican population success story.” Theoretical Framework Share

The Sabido methodology is an approach to development of mass-media serial dramas.

The Sabido Methodology

Written by Kriss Barker, Population Media Center

The methodology draws from five theories of communication and behavior change: (a) a circular adaptation of Shannon and Weaver’s Communication Model,[1] (b) Bentley’s Dramatic Theory,[2] (c) Jung’s Theory of Archetypes and Stereotypes and the Collective Unconscious,[3] (d) the Social Learning Theory of Albert Bandura,[4] and (e) MacLean’s Concept of the Triune Brain,[5] supplemented by Sabido’s own Theory of the Tone.[6]

Social Learning Theory: Bandura, 1977 & Social Cognitive Theory: Bandura, 1986

Social Learning Theory, as articulated by the Stanford University psychologist Professor Albert Bandura, explains how people learn new behaviors from vicariously experiencing the actions of others. A key to the use of Social Learning Theory in Sabido- style serial dramas is use of appropriate models that are visibly rewarded (or punished) in front of the audience, in order to convert the values that are being promoted by the serial drama into behavior. Social Learning Theory postulates that positive rewards have a vicarious effect upon the observer (in this case, the audience) and can motivate audience members to practice similar behavior(s). Punishing a role model for practicing a socially undesirable behavior likewise provides a vicarious experience for the observer and can inhibit his or her practice of the same behavior. This adoption is called modeling because it is based on the role model’s conduct. Through modeling it is possible to acquire new forms of behavior and to strengthen or weaken certain behaviors. In Sabido-style serial dramas, characters “teach” audience members via modeling so that they are able to make a recommended response.

Sabido determined that three types of characters are fundamental to successful modeling by audience members. The first two types of characters are positive and negative role models. They embody positive and negative behaviors concerning the social issues addressed in the serial drama (and are based on Jung’s theory of archetypes and stereotypes, described above). These characters will not change during the course of the serial drama, but are repeatedly rewarded or punished for their behaviors. The consequences of these positive or negative behaviors must be directly linked to the behavior in question: for example, a truck driver character that is practicing at-risk sexual behavior should suffer from a sexually transmitted infection or even contract HIV, but should not be the victim of a traffic accident.

The third type of character is the “transitional character.” These characters are neither positive nor negative but somewhere in the middle. These transitional characters play the pivotal role in a Sabido-style serial drama, and are designed to represent members of the target audience. The transitional characters’ evolution toward the desired behavior is that which the audience members will use to model their own behavior change. Here is your small group assignment:

1. Identify a problem that is relevant to the community

2. Create a show aimed at bringing about social change 3. You will need to describe the show and the key people to the class

This will count as evidence for assessment objective # 3

You will have 45 minutes to create your project. You will have to turn in a proposal for the show. It must contain the following items:

 problem your show will address

 the premise of the show

 the method(s) to change behaviour

This can be in any format you want.

Advanced Proficient Basic Minimal Social -Problem selected is a -Problem selected is -Problem selected -Problem Problem relevant (relevant to a relevant (relevant is a current social selected is not teens), current social issue to teens), current issue a current -Social issue is described social issue social issue in detail Premise of -Show is described in -Show is described in -Show is described -Show is the Show detail and includes the detail and includes in detail and described in following: the following: includes the detail and Theme; characters; act(s); Theme; characters; following: includes the scene(s) act(s) Theme; characters following: Theme Method to The method is described The method is The method is The method is Change in detail and a description described and a described and a described Behavior of how it might influence description of how it description of (to teach or end) behavior might influence (to how it might is included teach or end a influence behavior behavior) behavior is is included included Assessment Objective 3 mark will be determined by the rubric.