Soap Operas and Development: Good Trash

How television and radio shows can improve behaviour

In the radio drama “Nau em Taim” (“Now is the time” in Pidgin) aired in Papua New Guinea, a widowed father takes up dynamite fishing – profitable but disastrous for the reef. Then he meets a dashing marine scientist who warns him off. The idea is that by the end of the drama, which debuted in February, both he – and the listeners – will renounce dynamite for sustainable fishing.
 

The show’s producer, the Population Media Center (PMC) in Vermont, has been a pioneer of programmes with the goal of fostering development. But other groups have increasingly followed suit. In Vietnam Khat Vong Song uses radio drama to teach its listeners about domestic violence. In Kenya Mediae promotes civil rights with a television soap called “Makutano Junction”.

Evidence that radio and television soaps can change behaviour was first spotted in the 1970s. But solid academic research was lacking until a few years ago. In 2008 economists at the Inter-American Development Bank, for instance, found that Brazilians receiving Globo, a television network, had fewer children and got divorced more often. Another study discovered that, as cable television spread, the fertility rate in rural India dropped by as much as if women had received five additional years of education.

Some thought that this was because couch potatoes were less likely to make babies. But research in Ethiopia showed that dramas can have a direct effect. Demand for contraceptives rose by 157% among married women who listened to the soap operas “Yeken Kignet” and “Dhimbibba”. Male listeners sought tests for HIV/AIDS four times as much as male non-listeners.

“The best results are when people identify with characters,” says Betty Oala of the PMC. This is why the organisation does extensive research, takes on local writers and uses native languages.

Not only are soaps effective, but they are also cheap. Radio programmes can cost as little as three cents to reach a listener in Africa. Yet trying to influence the poor can be controversial. Although producers do not hide their agendas, Charles Kenny, an economist, thinks that there could be a “quagmire of a debate over morals and a tangle of regulation”. An increase in divorces, say, may seem like good news to a woman activist, but bad to a Catholic priest.

肥皂劇與發(fā)展：肥皂劇也可以有用

電視和廣播怎樣改進(jìn)人們的行為

在巴布亞新幾內(nèi)亞播出的廣播劇“Nautica em Taim”(用洋涇浜英語(yǔ)說(shuō)就是“現(xiàn)在是時(shí)候了”)中，一個(gè)喪偶的父親開始從事用炸藥捕魚的行當(dāng)——利潤(rùn)可觀但對(duì)珊瑚危害很大。之后他遇見一位沖勁兒十足的海洋老師，這個(gè)人警告他不要再?gòu)氖逻@項(xiàng)行業(yè)。這部于二月首播的廣播劇的主旨就是播到劇尾的時(shí)候，這個(gè)父親和聽眾都將譴責(zé)炸藥對(duì)捕魚業(yè)可發(fā)展性的危害。

該廣播劇的制作方式佛蒙特州的人口傳媒中心(PMC)是通過(guò)電視廣播節(jié)目來(lái)促進(jìn)發(fā)展方面的先鋒。不過(guò)其他機(jī)構(gòu)也在不斷效仿。在越南，Khat Vong Song使用廣播劇向聽眾教授家庭暴力方面的知識(shí)。肯尼亞的Mediae通過(guò)電視劇《Makutano Junction》推廣民權(quán)。

能證明廣播劇和電視劇可以改變?nèi)藗兊男袨榉绞降淖C據(jù)首次出現(xiàn)在上個(gè)世紀(jì)70年代。但是直到前幾年才有可靠的學(xué)術(shù)研究出現(xiàn)。比如2008年，在美洲發(fā)展銀行的經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家們發(fā)現(xiàn)收看電視網(wǎng)絡(luò)Globo的巴西人生的孩子較少、離婚更頻繁。另一項(xiàng)研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，隨著有線電視的普及，印度鄉(xiāng)村地區(qū)的生育率降低的程度相當(dāng)于婦女再接受五年的額外教育。

有些人認(rèn)為這是因?yàn)榻K日懶散在家的人造人的可能性更小。然而，在埃塞俄比亞進(jìn)行的一項(xiàng)研究顯示肥皂劇能起直接的作用。在收聽肥皂劇《Yeken Kignet》和《Dhimbibba》的已婚婦女中要求使用避孕手段的人數(shù)增加了157%。男性聽眾尋求HIV/AIDS測(cè)試的人數(shù)是不收聽節(jié)目的男性中尋求測(cè)試的人數(shù)的四倍。

“最好的結(jié)果出現(xiàn)在人們與角色產(chǎn)生共鳴的時(shí)候。”PMC的貝蒂·Oala說(shuō)。這就是為什么該組織要進(jìn)行大規(guī)模研究、吸收當(dāng)?shù)刈髡摺⑹褂卯?dāng)?shù)卣Z(yǔ)言的原因。

肥皂劇不僅有效而且廉價(jià)。在非洲廣播節(jié)目只需花費(fèi)三分錢就能獲得一位聽眾。但是試圖影響窮人的做法可能充滿爭(zhēng)議。盡管制作方并未隱藏他們的計(jì)劃，經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家查爾斯·肯尼(Charles Kenny)認(rèn)為“在道德和一堆規(guī)則之間爭(zhēng)論的困境”可能存在。比如離婚的增加對(duì)一名婦女積極分子來(lái)說(shuō)可能是個(gè)，但對(duì)一位天主教牧師來(lái)說(shuō)則是壞消息。

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