Entertainment-Education: A Communication Strategy for Social Change

Entertainment-education is the process of designing and implementing media messages to entertain and educate for the purposes of increasing an audiences knowledge about educational issues creating favorable attitudes and changing overt behavior. This book chronicles the origins of entertainment-education in current times documenting applications of the strategy around the globe. It serves as a resource for people concerned with the communication process offering a comprehensive discussion of the entertainment-education strategy and establishes a foundation on which to base further study and application. Major figures events and turning points in the evolution of the entertainment-education strategy are presented; theories and concepts explaining the effectiveness of implementing this strategy are documented. In addition research methodologies for studying the effects of such programs are provided and the lessons learned in utilizing such an approach are summarized. In order to present a balanced perspective of the approach its limitations are identified and the ethical problems that may accompany efforts to bring about social change are considered.