Influencing the means but not the ends: The role of entertainment-education interventions in development

As new information technologies facilitate the production and dissemination of broadcast media, entertainment-education interventions are increasingly used in attempts to influence audiences on issues such as political participation, support for democracy, violence against women, and tolerance of ethnic, religious, and sexual minorities. What factors make these programs effective in catalyzing behavior change in their audiences? Insights from social learning theory and other theories that motivate entertainment-education media highlight that individuals (i) learn about behaviors by observing examples of behavior in their environment and (ii) adopt behaviors that they believe will help them achieve their goals. We review existing empirical literature on entertainment-education in light of this foundational theory and find that exposure to broadcast media can change behavior by linking desired behaviors to pre-existing goals. Conversely and as expected, the literature does not provide much evidence that media leads to behavior change by persuading individuals to adopt new goals. We conclude the review with a discussion of the prospects for successful broadcast media interventions in two domains: public health, a realm where most interventions focus on linking behavior with existing goals, and countering violent extremism (CVE), where most interventions focus on changing goals. We also provide a checklist of desirable components to assist designers of edutainment programming. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

As new information technologies enable the production and dissemination of broadcast media, entertainment-education interventions are increasingly used to influence audience attitudes on various issues. These interventions primarily work by observing behavior examples and linking desired behaviors with existing goals to catalyze behavior change. The effectiveness of broadcast media in behavior change lies in connecting desired behaviors with pre-existing goals, rather than persuading individuals to adopt new goals.