Use of Mainstream Media to Encourage Social Responsibility

- from the Preface
This report consists of two main components: 1) an analysis of the experience of international agencies in using mass media entertainment to stimulate changes in health behaviours; and, 2) an inventory of 52 international projects which have utilised mass media entertainment for educational purposes...

...With few exceptions, the inventory descriptions include evaluations results to document the success or failure of each project in reaching its goals. The primary focus of the inventory is reproductive health, although selected examples of projects with other educational purposes - such as AIDS prevention and literacy - are included.

The research conducted in order to prepare the inventory revealed that there are many more examples of well-evaluated entertainment-education projects found outside of the United States than within. Furthermore, international reproductive health organisations have clearly taken a lead in pioneering the use of mass media entertainment for educational purposes in developing countries. And while more and more organisations both domestically and internationally are recognising the power of entertainment and developing new projects which take advantage of this power, only a minority of these porjects are thoroughly evaluated.

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