This is the course blog for PH 663 - the theory-based, practical, action-packed Health Communication course for ace Health Promotion students in the Graduate School of Public Health at San Diego State University. Are we having fun or what!
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Week 13 - Popular Culture & Entertainment
KEY CONCEPTS - Entertainment education - Communication contracts ..........> Entertainment ..........> Persuasion - Entire continuum - Link with "2 Paths"
I'm convinced. It really does seem, as Dr. Engelberg suggested in class yesterday, that popular media is the most powerful health educator out there. My husband always gets on my case for reading online celebrity gossip and for watching American Idol. But I always tell him (and I mean this) that I'm just doing my homework. Back when I never watched tv, I was completely out of touch with what was popular. And to make a difference in this world, we really have to be up to date on this stuff, thereby making television viewing/celebrity gossip reading a not so guilty pleasure after all.
I think we have to strike a balance with things being educational and entertainment, things need to be interesting for people to pay attention to them and fun to learn, at least for kids at least. There is a continuum, but I think that if things were just educational no one would watch them... not even health leaders in our fields, there is a reason why even for powerpoints and other presentations people make jokes or share personal stories... that is entertainment. I love how in Sex and the City, they may not have the healthiest lifestyles but they also address health issues such as sexual health, pregnancy, the importance of close personal relationships, stress, physical activity, and others... although maybe they do not live the "healthiest lifestyles" they do put it in your field of vision.... such as importance of condom use!
In agreement with KDH, I too am convinced that popular culture is the most effective health educator tool. I realize its a fine balance to work in the education component into a popular TV show, however, I think with a little creativity it can be done more often. I know I have experienced a negative health effect by watching a show, for example, thinking how good the cold beer looks that the characters are drinking and wanting one myself. As prevalent as the adverse health messages are, I think the creators (with some help of public health professionals- of course), could come up with simple ways to work in positive health choices. For example, they could have a character from the Grey's Anatomy cast do a work out to burn off some stress or have one of the Desperate Housewives give a little nutritional advice to a friend. I'm wondering though, how much do people really take in when they are in the "suspended disbelief" realm of enjoying their TV time and reserving one hour of the day to not worry about anything? If the message is processed through their peripheral mode of thinking, does it have any effect on them, or do they just gloss over when anything informative comes on? I guess that is where selective perception takes into account... as public health students, more attuned to health messages, we are going to pick up more health info, based on the existing importance we place on health... which means, if we are creating the messages, we may think they will be more effective than they actually end up being. I bet Professor Engelberg would say, "That's why we need to do formative research!!"
I had a mixed feeling about Sex and City being entertainment education, only because in the clip we saw they do seem to tackle the issue of smoking and its negative consequences. But in the rest of the series, I think, Carrie glamorizes smoking. She is a tv ad for smoking pulled straight out of glamour ads that depict women as sexy, glamorous, and alluring because they light up. That always bothered me about that show, because it really impacts the way women think. What I didn't realize until yesterdays class, was that now I have a new forum (Ent-Educ) in which to discuss some of my favorite shows such as Sex in the City and The Simpsons.
Health Edu-tainment is great way to reach a wide audience and those who typically would not reach, because they would not be interested, i.e. teens! This semester for one of my classes I and 2 other students had to facilitate weekly lessons on teen relationship violence to high school seniors. It was defiantly a great experience, but a lot of work in regards to keeping the "I know everything" students interested. We had a lesson where we used music lyrics from billboard top 100 songs (entertainment), “we thought the students would like and relate to”, and applied it to the lesson on power and control in relationships (education). Well it turned out that most of the students did not like the songs we picked and could not (refused) apply the songs to the lesson. The students were so focused on the artist and the type of music, which they did not listen to, that the educational aspect was lost “in translation.” I guess the point I am trying to make is that if you are going to incorporate entertainment aspect to education, in particular health related, make sure you know your audience, as we saw with the video in class. We are definitely changing our music lyrics for the next time we or anyone else teaches that lesson to teens.
Entertainment indeed can play a very powerful role in health education. For instance, at the end of the day, when people get home from work, they are tired and are most likely to seek entertainment by turning on their TV. Thus, it is very important to incorporate health messages within the entertainment media. Using entertainment for health promotion, however, can be a challenge and requires some creative thoughts and of course formative research. After watching Simpsons in class, I agree that the health message was not that powerful to me perhaps because it is a cartoon and I don’t know how much I can trust the information coming from Homer. But this might be great for the right audience such as kids. So, choosing the right audience is another important thing to take into consideration when using entertainment for health promotion purposes. Overall, health entertainment is a great way to reach most audiences out there.
Entertainment can be very educational, but how serious do people really take in what they watch. The Simpsons clip shown in class was funny, but I really didn't see how it was educational. Then when we watched the Sex and the City clip, I only saw it as educational because I was in the mind frame, you know, looking for signs that it would be educational. If I was to watch any other time, I would think, it's just a show, not really looking into it very deeply. Maybe if you see the same message all the time in different types of channels it would start making people think about it.
By the way, I did not talk to my friend about quiting smoking yet, so don't ask :)
I loved the concept of education though entertainment. Since we are truly a society that relies on entertainment, thanks to Hollywood and film industries, it makes sense that society would link to the 2 paths to pursuasion. If the message doesn't reach them, at leas they will remember the entertainment and hopefull recall a brand identity and when the need arises then they will have a reference. I think we rely too much on established cartoon comedy, such as the Sympsons, as popular as it may be. It's always a confusion in my mind as to which audience it targets. The adult humor in that I am sure bypasses most children and most adults are not looking for health messages from Bart Sympson--though some may connect with the characters. I actual know a family like the Sympson's--hard to belive but welcome to America. Placing the relevance of various entertainment education on a continuum was interesting and somewhat useful. Really enjoyed watching the clip for the Marines. Great to analyze the approach and trying to motivated Marines to stop drinking. Didn't realize soo much went into producing and thinking through a simple message--well done and interesting. Foreign clips on health issues was interesting to see how to reach a possibly "hard to reach" population. It was good to be able to think it through. They do need better actors, I also think.
Rule #1: Thou shall not violate the communication contract. Seems simple enough, right? Wrong. The contract is violated more often than some people would care to admit. However, as other members of the class pointed out, it behooves us to bring our A-game each time we approach the table. When developing new messages and setting the channel and method for those messages, it's important to keep in mind who are audience is and what the objectives are for the atudience. The Ooorah, Binge Drinking video did a nice job of both. The personal testimonials really hit home for the Marines and made the message relatable, personal, and not boring. Even for those Marines who did not drink a lot, I felt that the video could have easily reached both audiences similar to the clip of Carrie, the smoker, in Sex in the City. It easily reached the smoker and non-smoker, too. However, I like Satari, may not have caught that back when the episode was new. Finding a balance on the continuum is up to us. But, ultimately, the audience is the final judge in deciding if where we placed the balance is appropriate. I made an attempt to not violate the contract, when I made a video about Marines who are in situations where they may have had too much to drink. And, while ultimately, the Marines should be the judge, I'm curious to see what non-Marines think. Check it out here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJOWYTYV32s
I really liked the video that Amanda had posted…I am yet again impressed by her tech ability. I too agree with what Dr. E and the rest of the posts have said about entertainment/pop media being the number one educator. Back to my Peace Corps experience again, TV really wasn’t an option for most of the families but there was a theatre group in East Timor called Bebe Boulak (which means Crazy Goat). They came to my village for a night and performed a skit basically about family planning (Timor has the one of the highest birthrates in the world). They pushed the envelope as far as what I had ever seen in Timor but the community ate it up. There was more laughter than I had heard before. Like we talked about in class, the acting wasn’t that great but it was something novel to the Timorese and if it made even one person think about the consequences of sex, I consider it successful. Here is a link from the school where they are based... http://www.artemoris.org/about_us.htm
I agree with many of the previous posts that many people who watch TV are often using it as a form of relaxation rather than actively thinking about what they just seen or learned. I personally would never take advice from the Simpson or Sex in the City, neither show is credible in my opinion. I guess though at least they are giving out true and factual information embedded in comedy. One show that is entertaining and educational is the talk show Montel as well as other such as Oprah and many of the programs that are on the discovery channels. These shows are both entertaining and educational, but with a much more serious tone and much more credible with research behind the topics
Education through entartainment. I have been thinking about all the different commercials, cartoons and shows that contained a positive health message and that I will always remember. It can be interesting though how sometimes its a two sided coin. An example is the Gi Joe cartoon. You had about 23 minutes of constant violence, shooting,(Although nobody ever died in the show) envy, revenge, patriotism, and many other themes that carried over from us the young viewers to their adulthood. At the end of the show however, they taught you that wearing a helment while on a motorcycle could save your life, or that not panicking while swimming was crucial. how about not running when a rattlesnake bit you?!. These messages i'll never forget. The other ones i'll never forget either. This is a good example on the "2 paths" and how the path that you subconsciously chose, has a lot to do with the guidance that you receieve at home.
Entertainment education is definitely a great and vital way for us public health folk to reach people. It’s also important to have the right balance, to make sure its captivating and not too "preachy". Basically to keep the audience at the center and not "us", which is probably hard to design since most of us are passionate about our work and can make the mistake of assuming everyone else is as well. I agree with the comment Sithary made about having the right frame of mind to absorb messages/entertainment education. I know the last thing I want when I come home from a long day of work/school is turn on my TV and be educated and use my systemic approach to thinking. I want to be entertained and not think to hard-heuristic viewing. Even during our class and in that frame of mind, I tended to be more entertained and captivated by some clips rather than others. I was much more likely to remember the short clips shown to us like Sex in the City, Simpsons and the one about the Marines and Binge Drinking. Although I was interested in that video clip about entertainment education which summarized a lot of the concepts we have learned in class, I can’t recall all the concepts that were discussed. I think I might have recalled this right after class, but I cant now. However, if you were to ask me about those other clips, I can tell you what happened scene by scene. Maybe this is just me, but it made me more aware of how I process messages, what concepts I make relevant to myself and which topics I’m more likely to molder and discuss with friends.
Health education as part of pop culture. It's the ultimate point-counterpoint since there are many unhealthy messages in the media. It's pretty powerful that we now have the opportunity to show and encourage more positive health behaviors through the media. If the public is truly influenced by pop culture, hopefully the growing number of health positive messages in the media will be a huge breakthrough for our cause!
The Simpsons clip was funny and would be a good way to introduce topics relevant to family communication and dietary habits that are established at a young age. While the health message may not be evident, it is our job to reveal a hidden message. It seems that film clips are an interesting way to bring topics up for discussion. It enables people to reflect on the character’s choices in an objective way that can be utilized to examine their own behaviors in real life.
I agree with everyone's comments that entertainment and pop culture are potentially powerful tools for us to use to get health messages out to the general public. These are especially great avenues for reaching those people with low involvement in our health issue. While, as others expressed in their comments, health ed through pop culture may not work for everyone (including those with high issue involvement). Therefore we may also need to utilize other education strategies to influence those who don't give much credibility to the Simpsons or Sex in the City. However, as Dr. Engelberg mentioned, most people are going to have low involvement in our issues. So maybe entertainment education is the right path to go down. Ideally it would be nice if we could use all the different avenues we have available to consistently relay the same messages through these different channels. For example, if Sex in the City characters were consistently shown using condoms, while news shows talked to health experts who stressed the importance of always using condoms, while radio skits also talked about when and how to use condoms, etc. all different audience segments would be getting the same health message through various ways and hopefully they would pay attention to the source that is most compelling to them.
16 comments:
I'm convinced. It really does seem, as Dr. Engelberg suggested in class yesterday, that popular media is the most powerful health educator out there. My husband always gets on my case for reading online celebrity gossip and for watching American Idol. But I always tell him (and I mean this) that I'm just doing my homework. Back when I never watched tv, I was completely out of touch with what was popular. And to make a difference in this world, we really have to be up to date on this stuff, thereby making television viewing/celebrity gossip reading a not so guilty pleasure after all.
I think we have to strike a balance with things being educational and entertainment, things need to be interesting for people to pay attention to them and fun to learn, at least for kids at least. There is a continuum, but I think that if things were just educational no one would watch them... not even health leaders in our fields, there is a reason why even for powerpoints and other presentations people make jokes or share personal stories... that is entertainment. I love how in Sex and the City, they may not have the healthiest lifestyles but they also address health issues such as sexual health, pregnancy, the importance of close personal relationships, stress, physical activity, and others... although maybe they do not live the "healthiest lifestyles" they do put it in your field of vision.... such as importance of condom use!
In agreement with KDH, I too am convinced that popular culture is the most effective health educator tool. I realize its a fine balance to work in the education component into a popular TV show, however, I think with a little creativity it can be done more often. I know I have experienced a negative health effect by watching a show, for example, thinking how good the cold beer looks that the characters are drinking and wanting one myself. As prevalent as the adverse health messages are, I think the creators (with some help of public health professionals- of course), could come up with simple ways to work in positive health choices. For example, they could have a character from the Grey's Anatomy cast do a work out to burn off some stress or have one of the Desperate Housewives give a little nutritional advice to a friend. I'm wondering though, how much do people really take in when they are in the "suspended disbelief" realm of enjoying their TV time and reserving one hour of the day to not worry about anything? If the message is processed through their peripheral mode of thinking, does it have any effect on them, or do they just gloss over when anything informative comes on? I guess that is where selective perception takes into account... as public health students, more attuned to health messages, we are going to pick up more health info, based on the existing importance we place on health... which means, if we are creating the messages, we may think they will be more effective than they actually end up being. I bet Professor Engelberg would say, "That's why we need to do formative research!!"
I had a mixed feeling about Sex and City being entertainment education, only because in the clip we saw they do seem to tackle the issue of smoking and its negative consequences. But in the rest of the series, I think, Carrie glamorizes smoking. She is a tv ad for smoking pulled straight out of glamour ads that depict women as sexy, glamorous, and alluring because they light up. That always bothered me about that show, because it really impacts the way women think. What I didn't realize until yesterdays class, was that now I have a new forum (Ent-Educ) in which to discuss some of my favorite shows such as Sex in the City and The Simpsons.
Health Edu-tainment is great way to reach a wide audience and those who typically would not reach, because they would not be interested, i.e. teens! This semester for one of my classes I and 2 other students had to facilitate weekly lessons on teen relationship violence to high school seniors. It was defiantly a great experience, but a lot of work in regards to keeping the "I know everything" students interested. We had a lesson where we used music lyrics from billboard top 100 songs (entertainment), “we thought the students would like and relate to”, and applied it to the lesson on power and control in relationships (education). Well it turned out that most of the students did not like the songs we picked and could not (refused) apply the songs to the lesson. The students were so focused on the artist and the type of music, which they did not listen to, that the educational aspect was lost “in translation.” I guess the point I am trying to make is that if you are going to incorporate entertainment aspect to education, in particular health related, make sure you know your audience, as we saw with the video in class. We are definitely changing our music lyrics for the next time we or anyone else teaches that lesson to teens.
Entertainment indeed can play a very powerful role in health education. For instance, at the end of the day, when people get home from work, they are tired and are most likely to seek entertainment by turning on their TV. Thus, it is very important to incorporate health messages within the entertainment media. Using entertainment for health promotion, however, can be a challenge and requires some creative thoughts and of course formative research. After watching Simpsons in class, I agree that the health message was not that powerful to me perhaps because it is a cartoon and I don’t know how much I can trust the information coming from Homer. But this might be great for the right audience such as kids. So, choosing the right audience is another important thing to take into consideration when using entertainment for health promotion purposes. Overall, health entertainment is a great way to reach most audiences out there.
Entertainment can be very educational, but how serious do people really take in what they watch. The Simpsons clip shown in class was funny, but I really didn't see how it was educational. Then when we watched the Sex and the City clip, I only saw it as educational because I was in the mind frame, you know, looking for signs that it would be educational. If I was to watch any other time, I would think, it's just a show, not really looking into it very deeply. Maybe if you see the same message all the time in different types of channels it would start making people think about it.
By the way, I did not talk to my friend about quiting smoking yet, so don't ask :)
I loved the concept of education though entertainment. Since we are truly a society that relies on entertainment, thanks to Hollywood and film industries, it makes sense that society would link to the 2 paths to pursuasion. If the message doesn't reach them, at leas they will remember the entertainment and hopefull recall a brand identity and when the need arises then they will have a reference. I think we rely too much on established cartoon comedy, such as the Sympsons, as popular as it may be. It's always a confusion in my mind as to which audience it targets. The adult humor in that I am sure bypasses most children and most adults are not looking for health messages from Bart Sympson--though some may connect with the characters. I actual know a family like the Sympson's--hard to belive but welcome to America. Placing the relevance of various entertainment education on a continuum was interesting and somewhat useful. Really enjoyed watching the clip for the Marines. Great to analyze the approach and trying to motivated Marines to stop drinking. Didn't realize soo much went into producing and thinking through a simple message--well done and interesting. Foreign clips on health issues was interesting to see how to reach a possibly "hard to reach" population. It was good to be able to think it through. They do need better actors, I also think.
Rule #1: Thou shall not violate the communication contract. Seems simple enough, right? Wrong. The contract is violated more often than some people would care to admit. However, as other members of the class pointed out, it behooves us to bring our A-game each time we approach the table. When developing new messages and setting the channel and method for those messages, it's important to keep in mind who are audience is and what the objectives are for the atudience. The Ooorah, Binge Drinking video did a nice job of both. The personal testimonials really hit home for the Marines and made the message relatable, personal, and not boring. Even for those Marines who did not drink a lot, I felt that the video could have easily reached both audiences similar to the clip of Carrie, the smoker, in Sex in the City. It easily reached the smoker and non-smoker, too. However, I like Satari, may not have caught that back when the episode was new. Finding a balance on the continuum is up to us. But, ultimately, the audience is the final judge in deciding if where we placed the balance is appropriate. I made an attempt to not violate the contract, when I made a video about Marines who are in situations where they may have had too much to drink. And, while ultimately, the Marines should be the judge, I'm curious to see what non-Marines think. Check it out here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJOWYTYV32s
I really liked the video that Amanda had posted…I am yet again impressed by her tech ability. I too agree with what Dr. E and the rest of the posts have said about entertainment/pop media being the number one educator. Back to my Peace Corps experience again, TV really wasn’t an option for most of the families but there was a theatre group in East Timor called Bebe Boulak (which means Crazy Goat). They came to my village for a night and performed a skit basically about family planning (Timor has the one of the highest birthrates in the world). They pushed the envelope as far as what I had ever seen in Timor but the community ate it up. There was more laughter than I had heard before. Like we talked about in class, the acting wasn’t that great but it was something novel to the Timorese and if it made even one person think about the consequences of sex, I consider it successful. Here is a link from the school where they are based...
http://www.artemoris.org/about_us.htm
I agree with many of the previous posts that many people who watch TV are often using it as a form of relaxation rather than actively thinking about what they just seen or learned. I personally would never take advice from the Simpson or Sex in the City, neither show is credible in my opinion. I guess though at least they are giving out true and factual information embedded in comedy. One show that is entertaining and educational is the talk show Montel as well as other such as Oprah and many of the programs that are on the discovery channels. These shows are both entertaining and educational, but with a much more serious tone and much more credible with research behind the topics
Education through entartainment. I have been thinking about all the different commercials, cartoons and shows that contained a positive health message and that I will always remember. It can be interesting though how sometimes its a two sided coin. An example is the Gi Joe cartoon. You had about 23 minutes of constant violence, shooting,(Although nobody ever died in the show) envy, revenge, patriotism, and many other themes that carried over from us the young viewers to their adulthood. At the end of the show however, they taught you that wearing a helment while on a motorcycle could save your life, or that not panicking while swimming was crucial. how about not running when a rattlesnake bit you?!. These messages i'll never forget. The other ones i'll never forget either. This is a good example on the "2 paths" and how the path that you subconsciously chose, has a lot to do with the guidance that you receieve at home.
Entertainment education is definitely a great and vital way for us public health folk to reach people. It’s also important to have the right balance, to make sure its captivating and not too "preachy". Basically to keep the audience at the center and not "us", which is probably hard to design since most of us are passionate about our work and can make the mistake of assuming everyone else is as well. I agree with the comment Sithary made about having the right frame of mind to absorb messages/entertainment education. I know the last thing I want when I come home from a long day of work/school is turn on my TV and be educated and use my systemic approach to thinking. I want to be entertained and not think to hard-heuristic viewing. Even during our class and in that frame of mind, I tended to be more entertained and captivated by some clips rather than others. I was much more likely to remember the short clips shown to us like Sex in the City, Simpsons and the one about the Marines and Binge Drinking. Although I was interested in that video clip about entertainment education which summarized a lot of the concepts we have learned in class, I can’t recall all the concepts that were discussed. I think I might have recalled this right after class, but I cant now. However, if you were to ask me about those other clips, I can tell you what happened scene by scene. Maybe this is just me, but it made me more aware of how I process messages, what concepts I make relevant to myself and which topics I’m more likely to molder and discuss with friends.
Health education as part of pop culture. It's the ultimate point-counterpoint since there are many unhealthy messages in the media. It's pretty powerful that we now have the opportunity to show and encourage more positive health behaviors through the media. If the public is truly influenced by pop culture, hopefully the growing number of health positive messages in the media will be a huge breakthrough for our cause!
The Simpsons clip was funny and would be a good way to introduce topics relevant to family communication and dietary habits that are established at a young age. While the health message may not be evident, it is our job to reveal a hidden message. It seems that film clips are an interesting way to bring topics up for discussion. It enables people to reflect on the character’s choices in an objective way that can be utilized to examine their own behaviors in real life.
I agree with everyone's comments that entertainment and pop culture are potentially powerful tools for us to use to get health messages out to the general public. These are especially great avenues for reaching those people with low involvement in our health issue. While, as others expressed in their comments, health ed through pop culture may not work for everyone (including those with high issue involvement). Therefore we may also need to utilize other education strategies to influence those who don't give much credibility to the Simpsons or Sex in the City. However, as Dr. Engelberg mentioned, most people are going to have low involvement in our issues. So maybe entertainment education is the right path to go down. Ideally it would be nice if we could use all the different avenues we have available to consistently relay the same messages through these different channels. For example, if Sex in the City characters were consistently shown using condoms, while news shows talked to health experts who stressed the importance of always using condoms, while radio skits also talked about when and how to use condoms, etc. all different audience segments would be getting the same health message through various ways and hopefully they would pay attention to the source that is most compelling to them.
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