Using the Media to Achieve Reproductive Health and Gender Equity © Population Media Center, 2011 Population Media Center (PMC) P.O. Box 547, Shelburne, Vermont 05482 USA Tel: 1-802-985-8156 Fax: 1-802-985-8119 Website: www.populationmedia.org This publication may be freely reviewed, quoted, reproduced or translated, in part or in full, provided the source is acknowl- edged. The document may not be sold or used in conjunction with commercial purposes without prior written permission from Population Media Center. The views expressed in this document are solely the responsibility of the authors. Using the Media to Achieve Reproductive Health and Gender Equity Preface by Werner Haug Director, Technical Division United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is an international development “Because agency that promotes the right of every woman, man and child to enjoy a life of health and equal opportunity. UNFPA supports countries in using population data everyone for policies and programs to reduce poverty and to ensure that every pregnancy is wanted, every birth is safe, every young person is free of HIV, and every girl and counts” woman is treated with dignity and respect. For over 40 years, UNFPA has sought to improve reproductive health in the developing world, with a special emphasis on women’s empowerment, gender equality, and HIV prevention. UNFPA works to help governments worldwide to develop evidence-based programs and policies, based on solid data and best practices in the field. UNFPA’s work is guided by key principles, as documented in the landmark Cairo Programme of Action, which continues to guide governments and the international community and contribute to our work to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. The Cairo Programme of Action calls for “…greater and more effective use of the entertainment media, including radio and television soaps operas and drama, folk theatre and other traditional media to encourage public discussion of important but sometimes sensitive topics related to the implementation of the present Programme of Action.” (ICPD Programme of Action, Article 11.23) This publication is designed to aid UNFPA’s partners to more effectively use the media, especially entertainment programs, to help audience members achieve reproductive health and gender equity. The various chapters present best practices in the field of entertainment-education for social change. We encourage media practitioners to make use of the wealth of knowledge presented in this compilation to build a better world for us all. Preface by William N. Ryerson President, Population Media Center Every day, more than 225,000 people are added to the planet. Every day, “Acting for approximately 100 other species go extinct. These figures, as terrifying as they are, mask the human suffering that is Change” at the heart of the global population crisis. All over the world, women suffer disproportionately from a lack of information about family planning, reproductive health services, and the prevention of HIV/AIDS. Every year, 343,000 women die from pregnancy and childbirth – a figure equal to the number of the American soldiers killed in the Civil War, World War I, the Korean War and Vietnam combined. Most of the women who die are in their teens and early twenties, forced by their societies into bearing children too young and far too frequently. Data from demographic surveys worldwide make it clear that non-use of family planning often results from misinformation and male opposition – exactly the types of barriers that entertainment-education programs can most effectively overcome. Population Media Center, Inc. (PMC) is a nonprofit international nongovernmental organization working worldwide to promote use of effective communication strategies for promoting behavior change to encourage family and reproductive health. In 2005, UNFPA commissioned PMC to develop a training guide for journalists and media personnel in how to develop effective behavior change communication programs employing entertainment-education techniques. As a companion piece to that training guide, this manual documents best practices from different communication strategies aimed at improving reproductive health, gender equity and mitigation of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. To develop the manual, PMC held a seminar of researchers, writers, producers, and program managers who are using entertainment-education in various contexts worldwide to compare obstacles and lessons learned and to share best practices in use of the approach. The papers that were presented during that seminar were compiled into the present document. We encourage you to make use of the wealth of knowledge presented in this compilation to use mass media to promote positive social change. Table of Contents Preface I. THE METHODOLOGY AND ITS HISTORY Chapter 1: Sex, Soap, and Social Change: Theories Underlying the Sabido Methodology ......................................................2 Kriss Barker Chapter 2: Evolution of the Sabido Methodology of “Entertainment-Education” ............................................................... 12 Miguel Sabido Chapter 3: A Brief History of Entertainment-Education for Behavior Change ...................................................................20 David O. Poindexter II. KEY PRINCIPLES Chapter 4: Social Cognitive Theory and Media Production ...............................................................................................30 Albert Bandura Chapter 5: The Use of Formative Research in Entertainment-Education ...........................................................................39 Earl Babbie Chapter 6: Monitoring Entertainment-Education Programs ............................................................................................ 47 Peter W. Vaughan Chapter 7: Studying Entertainment-Education Effects: ...................................................................................................62 Going Beyond the Usual Arvind Singhal III. APPLICATIONS OF THE SABIDO METHODOLOGY Chapter 8: The Effectiveness of Entertainment-Education: Case Studies from Around the World ...................................... 72 William N. Ryerson Chapter 9: The Successful Application of a Comprehensive Behavior Change Communication Program in Ethiopia and Implications for Communication Projects Elsewhere ................................................................ 81 Negussie Teffera Chapter 10: Social Merchandising: Contributing to the Empowerment and Autonomy of Communities .............................88 Marcio R. Schiavo About the Authors ........................................................................................................................................................99 1 CHAPTER 1 Sex, Soap, and Social Change: Theories Underlying the Sabido Methodology Kriss Barker Population Media Center Photo by Ephraim Okon 2 1. INTRODUCTION The Sabido methodology is a proven approach to developing effective mass-media serial dramas. However, unlike typical “soap operas,” Sabido-style serial dramas are not used to sell sex or soap, but rather, social change. In this chapter we explore the Sabido methodology and the reasons why this theory-based approach to behavior change communication has been so successful. How do Sabido-style serial dramas differ from “soaps” and how does the Sabido methodology differ from other entertainment-education approaches? Why do audiences from the Philippines to India, from Tanzania to Ethiopia, and from Mexico to Bolivia find these dramas irresistible – and much more than merely educating in an entertaining way? And what does the future hold for the application of the Sabido methodology to Miguel Sabido rethinking the very foundation of comprehensive behavior 2. RESULTS change communication programs? Mkwaju is a truck driver along the national routes in Tanzania. Miguel Sabido: Although Mkwaju is married, he has many ‘girlfriends’ along his “Entertainment With Proven Social Benefit” route – he is quite the sexual athlete. Tunu, Mkwaju’s subservient wife, stays at home to care for their children. She is becoming more Miguel Sabido was Vice President for Research at Televisa and more frustrated with her husband’s antics, especially the way he (Mexican television) during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. squanders his earnings on women and alcohol. She finally decides to While at Televisa, Sabido developed a theoretical model take things into her own hands, and starts her own small business, for eliciting pro-social attitudinal, informational, selling vegetables in the market. The business does well, thus giving and behavioral change through commercial television Tunu the self-confidence to leave Mkwaju. Mkwaju contracts HIV as programming. He called this model “entertainment a result of his high-risk lifestyle, and eventually develops symptoms of with proven social benefit.” AIDS. In an act of compassion, Tunu cares for him until he dies. But, his legacy lives on through his son, Kibuyu, who is beginning to follow Between 1975 and 1981, Miguel Sabido produced six social in his father’s footsteps. He regularly smokes marijuana with his content serial dramas in Mexico. During the decade 1977 friends on the outskirts of the city, and steals money from unsuspecting to 1986, when many of these Mexican soap operas were passers-by. Will Kibuyu suffer the same fate as his father? Or, will he on the air, the country underwent a 34 percent decline learn from his mother how to succeed in life?