Edu-tainment as tool for behaviour change
Dr Esta de Fossard’s third volume in the Communication for Behavior Change series by Sage Publications is a guide to creating distance education radio, TV and Internet programmes using the Edu-tainment format. In an online interview with OneWorld South Asia, she explains the need for educating community workers in developing countries and how Edu-tainment can help support and sustain behaviour change in communities. OneWorld South Asia: You have written extensively on behaviour change programmes; your earlier volumes have focused on use of radio drama, television and films. This book looks at distance education for community workers in developing countries. In this context, what were the origins of this particular volume, and how did it follow from the earlier ones? Esta de Fossard: The first two volumes concentrate on what is called “Entertainment-Education” for the general public or for specific members of the general public (such as adolescents). The theory behind Entertainment-Education is to create an entertainment (such as a serial drama or soap opera) that will attract and hold the attention of the audience. The important behaviour change education is then blended into the entertainment in a manner that will encourage the audience to emulate the behaviour change/s. Over many years (more than 30) in the behaviour change world, I have learned that an Entertainment-Education project on its own is not enough to encourage all members of the audience to make—or more importantly maintain—the recommended changes. What is needed is on-the-ground support from members of the local community who have been trained to be able to encourage and support the changes. In many places, especially the more remote areas of the world, it is difficult, if not impossible, to provide necessary training for these community workers. Edu-tainment programmes, provided on radio or television, can fill this gap. In several countries of the world (including India, Bangladesh and Nepal) I have guided the development of what we call synergistic programming. It provides one series of teaching programmes (Edu-tainment) that trains the local community workers, and a serial drama (Entertainment-Education) that motivates the audience to begin to make the appropriate behaviour change/s. The Entertainment-Education programmes encourage the audience to turn to their local community workers for help in making the necessary changes. Both sets of programmes can be heard by all listeners. The fact that the Entertainment-Education drama demonstrates the importance and ability of local community workers greatly enhances the desire of the community workers to know how to respond when audience members turn to them for help. OWSA: How does the model of Edu-tainment differ from the more commonly used form of Entertainment-Education? EF: The main difference between Edu-tainment and Entertainment-Education is indicated in the two titles. Edu-tainment puts the emphasis on education—actual training for the community workers. It is clear from the outset of every programme that the primary intention is to teach. Entertainment-Education, on the other hand, puts the primary emphasis on entertainment. The whole purpose of “entertainment” is to attract and hold the attention of the audience. Certain characters in the Entertainment-Education drama serial are designed to arouse the empathy of audience members or to provide audience members with a sense of self-efficacy when it comes to undertaking the recommended changes. Rather than directly “educating” the audience about the advantages of the recommended behaviour change, the primary focus of Entertainment-Education programmes is to engage the attention and emotions of the audience, and then weave in the “education” naturally and gradually and subtly. OWSA: You write “Educating community workers to support and encourage positive behaviour change in their community is a truly valuable task.” What would you say are the major motivators for the learners? EF: The most obvious advantage of education for the community workers is an enhanced sense of importance and self-esteem. By providing community workers with the technical knowledge they need and with clear and demonstrated guidelines as to how to interact effectively with their clients, Edu-tainment programmes provide community workers with a clear sense of their vital importance in their community. Well-written Edu-tainment programmes not only include dramatic demonstrations of how the community workers should interact with their clients, but also powerful scenes in which community members respond to them with respect and gratitude. The result is a two-fold improvement: community workers listening to the programmes learn how to treat their clients with respect; community members listening to the programmes learn how important their community workers are and how necessary it is to show them respect and gratitude. OWSA: How does the book address cultural differences and different literacy levels in programme design? EF: Edu-tainment programmes must be written by local writers adequately trained in the method. Writers and producers must understand that it is essential for them to really know their audience before beginning to write or produce. They are encouraged to go out into the community and meet and observe community workers in their daily tasks. They are also encouraged to observe how community members feel about and respond to the workers, and to build their programmes on this knowledge. The book takes into account that not all community workers are fully literate and there are several suggestions included as to how low-literate community workers can engage in and respond to the programmes. These suggestions are found in Chapter 11 of the book. OWSA: How does one go about choosing the right medium in distance education and the right format within that medium? EF: The choice of medium depends very largely on what is most readily available and affordable to the intended audience of community workers. It also depends on the budget available to those making the programmes. Radio is a very successful medium because it relies on the imagination of the audience. In television it is necessary to find actors and locations that truly match the community workers and their environment. Radio allows the audience to “see” the location as very like their own and to envisage the fictional community workers to look and be very like themselves. The only real disadvantage of radio is that it cannot visually demonstrate certain skills, such as giving an injection. However, in cases where visual presentation is important, this can be provided with illustrated support materials. Selection of the format also depends to some degree on the preferences of the audience. The most successful format, however, is usually one that follows the 6 Ts of Teaching: Telling (the topic to students); Teaching (and providing information); Transforming (information into a brief mini-drama that demonstrates how the community worker should make use of the new knowledge in the community, and how to interact with community members); Testing (by asking audience to respond to questions related to the topic); Tasking (students by giving them an assignment for the coming week that encourages them to make use of their lessons learned); and (again) Telling (students what the subject will be of the next lesson). OWSA: How important is the role of a writer? Could you elaborate on the 5Es of Edu-tainment writing as mentioned in the book? EF: The role of the writer is of paramount importance. The chosen writer must be experienced and highly competent in writing drama (or whatever format chosen) for the selected medium. He/she must be dedicated to the task of helping to improve the lives of others through behaviour change communication, and willing to abide by and correctly present the teaching information determined by the curriculum team for each programme. The underlying principles of Entertainment-Education and Edu-tainment are explained in the 5 Es. An effective programme is one that is well-structured and well-presented and will emotionally engage the audience to have empathy for one or more of the characters (be they fictional or real). The effective programme must present examples that show the audience HOW to carry out the recommended behaviour and the RESULTS that can be obtained. The programme will provide audience members with a sense of efficacy: a sense that they can achieve what is demonstrated in the programme. The end result will be a sense of ego-enhancement in the audience. A sincere belief in their ability to accomplish what has been demonstrated and taught in the programmes. OWSA: How can we make certain that learners are using their new knowledge? Is there a way to ensure knowledge is transformed into practice? EF: There are several ways in which we can determine whether or not the new knowledge is being put into practice. The most obvious is to have inspectors visit the communities from time to time to see if the lessons are being put into practice. This method, however, is time consuming and expensive. Other ways to check on the practice of the behaviours include inviting audience members to submit letters telling of the results they have experienced. Every tenth programme can be devoted to a listeners’ forum in which letters from listeners can be presented. Community members can be invited to write and mail in ‘thank you’ letters explaining how community workers have helped them. They can also be invited to listen to or watch the programmes under the supervision of a Group Leader. The leader is provided with a programme handbook that explains how audience members can be called upon at the end of each programme to talk about how they have put into practice what they learned in previous lessons. The group leader is invited to take notes on these experiences and share them with the project management. OWSA: There are more mobile users in the developing world than the developed. Can new technologies play a role in distance education in places outside of the internet revolution? EF: The use of mobile phones can have a big positive effect on distance learning. For one thing, it offers learners the opportunity to be in contact with a ‘teacher’ who can answer questions following the broadcast. Learners can also be encouraged to phone in stories about their own use of new knowledge and these can be recorded and used on the air. Learners can also be encouraged to keep in touch with each other and share experiences which can add to the knowledge of others. OWSA: Most behaviour change programmes in developing country populations is limited to health issues. Is there a space for governance, environment, and new issues of global warming? EF: Absolutely. Entertainment-Education and Edu-tainment can be used for virtually any subject. These formats are already being used in many parts of the world for such topics as safe water; trash clean up; catastrophe avoidance (such as hurricanes); democracy and governance. Just as fables, traditional stories, songs, drama have been used throughout the ages to encourage positive behaviour in people; so today Entertainment-Education and Edu-tainment programmes can be—and are being—used to encourage positive behaviour change and maintenance in many important areas of life. |
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