2010 Winner Everett M. Rogers Award for Excellence in Entertainment Education ENTERTAINMENT EDUCATION: IT TAKES THREE TO TANGO An edited transcript of the 2010 Everett M. Rogers Colloquium, held September 22, 2010 • THE NORMAN LEAR CENTER IT TAKES THREE TO TANGO • THE NORMAN LEAR CENTER The Norman Lear Center is a nonpartisan research and public policy center that studies the social, political, economic and cultural impact of entertainment on the world. The Lear Center translates its findings into action through testimony, journalism, strategic research and innovative public outreach campaigns. On campus, from its base in the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, the Lear Center builds bridges between schools and disciplines whose faculty study aspects of entertainment, media and culture. Beyond campus, it bridges the gap between the entertainment industry and academia, and between them and the public. Through scholarship and research; through its conferences, public events and publications; and in its attempts to illuminate and repair the world, the Lear Center works to be at the forefront of discussion and practice in the field. For more information, please visit: www.learcenter.org. THE EVERETT M. ROGERS AWARD The USC Annenberg School and the Norman Lear Center seek to recognize exceptional creativity in the practice of entertainment-education designed to benefit society, or outstanding research and scholarship that has illuminated the processes or effects of entertainment-education. We have established this award in the name of our former colleague and leader in the field of entertainment-education. Everett M. Rogers’ lifetime of contributions significantly raised standards for producing appealing and effective media to enhance the quality of people’s lives, and for conducting research to discover how these productions can best achieve intended outcomes. A video of the program can be watched in its entirety online at: http://youtu.be/SKEmmRaIk9E www.learcenter.org 2 • THE NORMAN LEAR CENTER IT TAKES THREE TO TANGO • PARTICIPANTS MARTIN KAPLAN, PhD Lear Center founding director Martin Kaplan, a former associate dean of the USC Annenberg School, holds the Norman Lear Chair in Entertainment, Media and Society. A summa cum laude graduate of Harvard in molecular biology, a Marshall Scholar in English at Cambridge University, and a Stanford PhD in modern thought and literature, he was Vice President Walter Mondale’s chief speechwriter and deputy presidential campaign manager. He has been a Disney Studios vice president of motion picture production, a film and television writer and producer, and a radio host, print columnist and blogger. PETER CLARKE, PhD Peter Clarke holds two appointments at the University of Southern Cali- fornia: Professor of Preventive Medicine and of Communication. His most recent book (with Susan H. Evans) is Surviving Modern Medicine (Rutgers University Press, 1998). In addition to his research and work in social ac- tion, Clarke has chaired or served as dean of four academic programs in communication at three universities including the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism. MARTINE BOUMAN Dr. Martine Bouman is director of the Center for Media & Health in the Netherlands and was the first woman to receive the Everett M. Rogers Award for Excellence in Entertainment Education. Bouman’s career is a rare combination of roles as social scientist and educator, designer of EE campaigns, and public policy advocate. Her work has led to televi- sion and Internet storylines on public health topics including sex, drugs, alcohol, and the prevention of cardiovascular diseases. Her teaching and research on the effectiveness of EE has led to its formal integration into policy at the Ministry of Health and Welfare and several NGOs in the Netherlands, as well to courses at six universities and to her organizing the first major global conference on entertainment education outside the U.S. For more on the Center for Media & Health, visit their website at: http://www.media-health.nl. www.learcenter.org 3 • THE NORMAN LEAR CENTER IT TAKES THREE TO TANGO • several of our funders from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We are so grateful for their contributions that to make our work possible. So please join me in thanking them. [Applause]. IT TAKES THREE TO TANGO The Rogers winner is selected by a jury and the Chair of that jury is the man who was Dean of Ev’s school, a colleague of Ev Rogers. Martin Kaplan: Thank you very much for coming. I’m Marty He will introduce the award recipient – so Peter Clarke. [Applause]. Kaplan, the Director of the Normal Lear Center which is part of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. Peter Clarke: I knew Ev very well from the time we met in 1965. I In as brief as possible way, the mission of the Lear Center is to know I don’t look that old. [Laughter]. And when Marty mentioned study the impact of media and entertainment on society and to that The Diffusion of Innovations is the second-most cited book in shape the impact of media and entertainment on society. So it is social sciences, he’s not kidding. But let me give you a metric for both for research and for meddling – intervention – trying to make that. It has been cited now just under 30,000 times and those things better, and doing it in innovative ways. We hope that it’s of you who are familiar with citation indexes in scholarship will something that might interest you. There’s lots of room for people recognize that that is an extraordinary number. to contribute to the work that we do. Ev’s work in entertainment education, as distinguished from The Six years ago, Ev Rogers – who had been Associate Dean of this Diffusion of Innovation has been fueled by many people. A couple school and held the Walter Annenberg professorship – died. of them are in this room and I want to recognize them not only And in his honor, an award was created by the then-dean, Geoff for how they’ve fueled Ev’s contributions to this field, but how Cowan as a way to memorialize Ev’s contributions. Ev is an they themselves made extraordinary contributions of their own. amazing scholar. One of the books that he wrote, The Diffusion One of them is David Poindexter who is a former recipient of the of Innovation is the second-most cited book in the social sciences. Ev Rogers Award, and Sonny Fox who is the West Coast Vice Entertainment He also was involved in an area called ‘Entertainment Education’ President of Population Communication International. Sonny was serves as and it was a great passion of his. He brought that work here and very instrumental in putting together the funding that enabled Ev accidental after he was here as well. If you don’t know what entertainment to do the signature work that he did in Tanzania which remains education is, you’ll be finding out about it today. to this day some of the most compelling empirical evidence of the curriculum. value of education in the developing world. So please join me in Martin Kaplan Entertainment serves as an accidental curriculum. Entertainment recognizing them. [Applause]. education is a way to add intention to entertainment, so that it doesn’t just make money and make people enjoy themselves; This year’s work by the Judging Committee was really quite easy it also can be used for lots of purposes. The Lear Center has a and it gives me great pleasure to introduce the 2010 recipient program that focuses on entertainment education. Its name is of the Everett Rogers Award. Dr. Martine Bouman is the founder Hollywood Health & Society. That program administers this Rogers of the Center for Media and Health, which she created in 1999 Award and I would like to recognize all at once the people who are in the Netherlands, and which represents a certain mosaic of part of that program. Sandra de Castro Buffington is the Director contributions to this field. She has contributed in the production of the program and we have in here fresh from the East Coast side, she’s contributed to program conceptualization and creation. www.learcenter.org 4 • THE NORMAN LEAR CENTER IT TAKES THREE TO TANGO • She’s also contributed to the research side. The award is named after Everett Rogers and as some of you may know, I was lucky to meet him in person and to work with him Her doctoral dissertation, Turtles and Peacocks: Collaboration in on several occasions. I hold dear the first meeting that I had with Entertainment-Education Television, is an insightful look at the him. It was a bit of an awkward situation, I must say. It was on There was a program creation process, which you can also learn by visiting a beautiful morning in 1991. I was in Finland participating in a distinguished her website at http://www.media-health.nl. But Martine has also conference and we went to the lobby for the bus tour of Finland’s gentleman sitting been a staunch policy advocate in the area of entertainment Karelia district. There was a distinguished gentleman sitting there there clearly education, influencing governmental policy in the Netherlands clearly waiting for people. So I arrived in the lobby and I stuck out and has really taken an international lead in creating a curriculum my hand and I said to him, “Hello. My name is Martine Bouman. waiting for people. to train the next generation of people in entertainment education. Are you the bus driver?” [Laughter]. And you know, he smiled So I arrived in She represents what can be done on a nationwide basis. I know and he took my hand and he said “Very nice to meet you, Mrs. the lobby and I the Netherlands is a small nation, but nations are complex entities Bouman. Yes, we will be traveling together although I will not be stuck out my hand trying to coordinate educational policy in whatever their size. Her driving.” [Laughter]. and I said to him, center is really famous for creating the infrastructure that enables the training and the education of the next generation of creators I was not sure what his role would be in this tour so I started a “Hello. My name is of entertainment education. conversation. You are a little bit embarrassed, so you start a little Martine Bouman. small talk. Then we walked together to the bus. I told him that Are you the bus It is a great pleasure to introduce to you the 2010 recipient of the I was working in the health communication field and that I was driver?” Rogers Award, Martine Bouman. [Applause]. specifically interested in entertainment education strategy. Then I casually mentioned an Indian television series called Hom Log as Martine Bouman Martine Bouman: It’s a great pleasure to be here with so many one of the examples that I knew of. Then his eyes starting shining people who came especially for this colloquium. Of course I and he stuck out his hand and he introduced himself, “Hello. I am feel very privileged and honored to be the sixth recipient of the Ev Rogers and I know this Hom Log project very well.” Entertainment Education Award named for Everett Rogers. And I’m so glad that one of the former recipients, David Poindexter, [Video Clip Begins] is here. And I know that two other recipients, Arvind Singhal and Miguel Sabido, who I met two weeks ago in Berlin, Germany, Everett Rogers: I believe I was the first scholar to try would have loved to be here. But they were not able to be here. to measure the effects of entertainment education on They sent us their regards. audience members’ knowledge and attitudes toward the educational issue and the actual behavior of change. This I also want to thank the hosts of this event. They invited me to was a study on the effects on family planning behavior come here in person to receive the award – Marty Kaplan of the in India of a television soap opera named Hom Log in Norman Lear Center; Peter Clarke of the University of Southern the mid-‘80s. California; and Sandra de Castro Buffington from Hollywood Health and Society. I also would like to thank Christina Felix, who [Video Clip Ends] did a wonderful job in organizing the logistic details to bring me here and to host me. So I thank all of you. Martine Bouman: So of course, I was very familiar with Hom Log www.learcenter.org 5 • THE NORMAN LEAR CENTER IT TAKES THREE TO TANGO • phrase you have to say when the doctor is looking in your throat, Say Ah. It was about a woman who was a doctor and had a lot of patients in her practice. And I thought, “Wow, this is a good setting in which to introduce heart health themes, lifestyle themes.” It was in the 1980s, so 4 million out of 50 million people watched this series. But of course, this series did not incorporate a health communication message. And I though this was a pity. I thought we should try to collaborate with people in the entertainment Hum Log industry. Because of my contact with Ev, I shared this idea with and to not recognize Ev in person was quite embarrassing, I must him. And he told me a lot about the potential of entertainment say. Over the next few days, we talked a lot about entertainment education. And he added, “Entertainment education is also great education. Ev is a very busy person, so I was so lucky that we had fun.” a Karelia tour together. We had three days to really talk and at a certain point in time I asked him if he would be willing to be [Video Clip Begins] a long-distance member of my Ph.D. committee. And of course Ev smiled again and said, “I’m happy that I had such a rapid Everett Rogers: Oh, yes, the fun parts. Of course, it’s promotion from being a bus driver to being part of your doctoral a lot of fun to get high ratings if it’s a radio or television committee.” [Laughter]. show, or to have a lot of people come. And many of these programs have been unbelievably popular. The When I started to do my Ph.D. at the University of Wageningen, I real payoff isn’t just the number of people who are discovered that Ev had very strong ties with the Netherlands and watching, viewing, listening, reading, whatever. It’s the his relationship with the Wageningen Agricultural University went changes in their behavior that’s, of course, the real fun back for decades. The metaphor of Ev as a bus driver is very suitable or elation that comes from entertainment education. In for him because Ev guided many of us on his own entertainment fact, I guess it could go to your head, and then when education journeys. He was very friendly, he was radiant and he you have an entertainment education program that’s was also very inclusive. He introduced me to several people who just good, but not fabulous, and some are of that kind, were already working in entertainment education. One of them they get average ratings and attract average audiences, was Arvind Singhal whom I met first in 1992 in New Delhi. And but nothing unbelievable, it’s a little disappointing. Oh, he later introduced me to David Poindexter, to William Brown, to well, this was only a good show; it wasn’t a fabulous Michael Cody. So I got to know a lot of people because of his show. So you can almost get spoiled with your success. introductions. The fact that there’s going to always be a failure is How did I get involved in entertainment education? How did I start probably what makes it all the more interesting, if there my own journey in entertainment education? It was in the early was no chance that it wasn’t going to work. There’s ‘80s and at that time I was employed with the Netherlands Heart enough uncertainty that you never know and then Foundation. I saw a drama series on television. It was called that there’s great fun, of course, if you find out that it’s attracting a lot of people and then further, that is indeed www.learcenter.org 6 • THE NORMAN LEAR CENTER IT TAKES THREE TO TANGO • changing people’s behavior. talk about the late 1980s, so there was a study on Hom Log. There were other studies. Most of the studies reported the research [Video Clip Ends] data, which is of course very important. But most of the studies were done in a non-Western setting. Living in the Netherlands Martine Bouman: I realized that I wanted to explore entertainment and trying to create these entertainment education interventions, education strategy as a communication tool for the Netherlands I had to find a way to make it work within a Western setting and Heart Foundation. And in those days, there were significant a Western culture. None of the articles mention the difficulties epidemiological studies on health and equality in the Netherlands behind the scenes and how we can collaborate within the industry. and worldwide. Certain groups of people had a shorter life, and What are the criteria for designing an entertainment education their quality of life was not so high, which really amazed me and I program? I found out that felt sorry about this. I thought, “Wow, if that’s the case, we should if you really try to create other types of methodologies to reach all kinds of This is also a kind of pledge or plea to all of you. If you write want to create groups so that they can benefit from the information out there.” articles about your work, it would also be very interesting for other Maybe entertainment education can be one of those strategies. people to know about the difficulties and the failures behind the entertainment screen. Please feel free also to write about processes and about education as a I started to explore this and I talked with my board of directors learning things and about the mistakes and pitfalls that you made, kind of planned at the Netherlands Heart Foundation. The foundation is a very otherwise other people fall in the same pitfall. intervention respectable, well-regarded medical organization, but it is not really strategy, then into popular culture. In those days – and I mean in the 1980s – it I found out that if you really want to create entertainment was taboo to have an interview in a tabloid or to work with a soap education as a kind of planned intervention strategy, then it needs it needs a lot of series or a drama series. a lot of time. And it needs also a lot of serious planning and Ev time. agreed with this. Martine Bouman I came across a lot of research that explains a very simple decision metrics. Sometimes when people are not really interested in a [Video Clip Begins] health lifestyle theme, then it might be possible to choose another way to persuade people to change their behavior. Everett Rogers: It isn’t easy to make a successful EE project. It’s much more difficult than having just an So this peripheral route gave me some leverage to talk with my entertainment program or just an educational program, director and with the board and say, “Hey, this is not just about and the extra effort that’s required is much more using low culture for fun. No, there is research behind it. There planning time to plan it. As an individual, I’ve never are scientific studies that show us that there are different routes enjoyed planning things; I wanted to do them, but I have to persuade people.” This gave me a lot of leverage to get the learned through the EE projects that I’ve been involved green light to experiment with entertainment education and I in that it’s months, and it often takes a year or more of deliberately called it an experiment because an experiment can planning before there’s even any production. fail. Nobody knew exactly at that time how to do it. This amounts to doing formative evaluation to find out There were, of course, some articles, but they were very scarce. I about the audience, to plan the characters and the www.learcenter.org 7 • THE NORMAN LEAR CENTER IT TAKES THREE TO TANGO • storyline and the script, and also to call together involved In the past 20 years, I was intimately involved with all kinds of people, community leaders or national leaders, including entertainment education partnerships and I soon learned by hard people who might oppose it if it’s a sensitive issue. This lessons and by making mistakes, that it’s like dancing, but dancing all requires this long period of time and a certain amount on eggshells. It really is a very subtle thing. I remember my first visit of cost. But I’m convinced that’s quite worthwhile. And to the Endemol Production Company, which is a big entertainment I believe that almost all of the effective entertainment company. They are the creators of Big Brother, whether you like it education projects, of whatever channel they have used, or not. But this is the entertainment industry in the Netherlands. have had that long period of planning. And it was in 1988 – I just jump back in time all the time – and we were creating a big game show on heart health issues. [Video Clip Ends] I was a kind of delegate co-producer and I had to advise the Martine Bouman: Have any one of you ever fancied to tango? producer on how to deal with the health issues. And the moment [Laughter]. This is a real question. Have you ever fancied to tango, I stepped into the room for the meeting, I was taken apart by one the dance? of the producers who said to me, “Martine, please be careful with what you say and please be careful with the sensitive nature of our Audience member: I tried to tango. scriptwriters.” I thought, “Oh, my gosh, I didn’t plan to say rude things, but there is something that needs to be balanced here. So Martine Bouman: You did? Wow, how many years? I learned that it was a subtle interaction and subtle play. When I talked this over with Ev, he recognized this very well and on several Audience member: I won’t go into that. [Laughter]. occasions, he referred to a metaphor that I used in my work. Martine Bouman: It’s very good that you tried to tango and that [Video Clip Begins] ...entertainment you’ve experienced this. Are there any other people who tango? Wow, that’s wonderful. So we know that it is a special dance. It Everett Rogers: The other resistance, which is education is like has its own rituals, its own creativity, and you could say it’s a very worldwide and is a problem to be overcome everywhere, a tango, only subtle play, a play of leading by pacing, and also a play of serving is exemplified by Martine Bouman’s Ph.D. dissertation not with two, by leading. title, The Peacock and the Turtle. The peacocks of the but in fact, with world are, I believe, the creative people – the scriptwriters, Well, entertainment education is like a tango, only not with two, directors, producers. The turtles are the people like three different but in fact, with three different disciplines, maybe even more. me – the scholars who do research on entertainment disciplines, maybe But let’s not make it too complicated. We have the scriptwriters – education, including formative research on where the even more. the creative media professionals – on the one hand; we have the audience is. Many entertainment people think that Martine Bouman behavioral scientists on the other hand; and you have, of course, we turtles are too slow; that’s why we’re turtles, not the subject matter experts. These three have to dance with each peacocks. They also feel that we’re interfering with their other. But how many times will they step on each others’ toes? complete right to do whatever they want to do, and [Laughter]. And who is leading who and how much room is there we are, by saying, “Well, let’s not forget the audience. for each of them to dance? Here’s what we know about the audience and let’s not www.learcenter.org 8 • THE NORMAN LEAR CENTER IT TAKES THREE TO TANGO • forget about this educational objective that we’re trying You should never use this word. Nowadays I say, “Would you to reach. So get rid of that cops-and-robbers scene. It be willing to integrate an actual scene that is now happening has nothing to do with family planning in Tanzania,” let’s in society that can create a nice drama line and contribute to say. important change?” instead of “education.” That is an inherent conflict and it gets worked out, but We also used to use the word “target audiences.” That sounds always with difficulty, and ultimately, it comes down to like you’re pointing your gun and shooting someone because this the creative people being shown or convinced that they is the person you want to reach. They talk about audiences or even can make a more effective program that will have greater about buyers as if it’s a commercial thing. These are a few of the impact on society. They all want to improve society; they different words, or frames, in entertainment education. And there don’t want to make it worse. And if collaborating with are a lot of others. So if you really try to understand the language, a turtle can get the peacock toward what they want, then you’re ahead. then ultimately, they will – at least to some degree – collaborate. To use the metaphor of the dance, knowing how to step forward and when to withdraw, I studied the theories of creativity to know [Video Clip Ends] what I did wrong. Why did I sometimes step on another’s toes? Did I step forward too soon? Should I have waited? So I studied Martine Bouman: When I talked with scriptwriters during my creative theory and I found that there are many stages to the Ph.D. research, some of them said, “This world is like a zoo with creative process. But there are also different brain modes. birds of different feathers.” That’s why the peacock metaphor came up. They also said that when they collaborated with a subject You have the left and the right-brain modes. This is simplifying specialist or with a scientist, “He was like a turtle, showing his it a bit. But the scientists among us, we are more left-brain head now and then and then quickly withdrawing when it became thinkers. We like linear things, we like logical things, we like I had to learn too dangerous.” When it became too popular or too edgy, then digital, sequential, technical ways of approaching things. While entertainment these people tended to drop out. the creative people are more intuitive, more synthetic, non-verbal education the hard and perceptual. It’s not that we have only one or the other, we all way, by doing it. That’s why the turtle and the peacock metaphor is used in my have a left and a right brain, by the way. But we are trained more work now, but when I talked to the producers and the scriptwriters in one or the other. And I made several – especially producers and the directors of the broadcasting mistakes... organizations, they said, “Well, the more competent and intelligent I learned from this that I should not, for example, interfere with Martine Bouman our partners are, the more we like it, the more interesting the a creative’s – i.e., scriptwriter – work in the incubation stage. If game.” So they really like to have a kind of equal partnership. I knock on his or her door when they are writing a script and say, “Hey, how are you doing and can I see some of your work In the beginning, I had to learn entertainment education the hard because my board of directors needs assurance,” they will be very way, by doing it. And I made several mistakes, as I already told frustrated because they were incubating – having a glass of wine you. For example, I mentioned the word “education” – when I said or even a joint – this is the Netherlands. [Laughter]. From there “entertainment education,” which is a big, big mistake. [Laughter]. they make a beautiful script. www.learcenter.org 9 • THE NORMAN LEAR CENTER IT TAKES THREE TO TANGO • after my first visit to Endemol Production Company, I came back. It I learned to be there at the research stage and then again at the was 2008 and this time the collaboration went very smooth. Thdy end, because of course I wanted to check that they did the work didn’t take me apart and they didn’t warn me to be sensesitive to that we wanted them to, and to make sure it had purpose. So the natures of the creators. Somehow, in those 20 years, a lot has this helped me very much. But there is a great difference between happened. theory and practice. Another interesting theory that helped me in entertainment education in the Netherlands was the work of the What did we do to make this happen? Well, we created the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. I think many of you may have Center for Media and Health (shows photograph of office). Do read him or heard of him. He had a general theory of practice. you see the dance floor in the middle? This is where all the people What I found very interesting was how he did work in art and come together and have their tangos. Well, this is the way we in science. And he said, “We have different forms of capital – intermediate between science, research and policy when we economic capital, cultural capital and social capital and every create entertainment education interventions. individual in every field strives to maximize its form of capital.” One of the things we did was to figure out how scriptwriters So if you want to collaborate with the media, or – the other do their work. I really was interested sincerely in how they write way around – the media wants to collaborate with you health their scripts, how they develop their characters, how they develop professionals, they each have their own field and their own feel of their storylines, what the time restraints were, what the budget the game, with their own habits and their own rules and norms. restraints were. So I applied for a grant. This grant, called Health And if you don’t understand these very well, then it’s difficult to on Screen, came from the Dutch Health Research Council and enter this domain. So there is a way to exchange capital forms that required us to watch episodes of four different drama series and help each other to do their work better. to identify drama lines. In this case, we chose the topic of sexual health because a lot of series have some reference to sexuality and For example, the Netherlands Heart Foundation has a lot of health. We analyzed 14 drama lines that we discovered in these supporters. If we talk with a producer and we say, “Hey, if you four series. want to collaborate with us then we will tell our supporters and more than 800,000 – which is a lot in the Netherlands – will watch But that was not that spectacular. What we wanted to do was to your program. Your figures will rise.” This is the kind of non- talk with the scriptwriters about these storylines. We talked with economic but symbolic capital that we can eake to the floor. We health communication professionals to see if they recognized some also bring our respect, our name and our fame to the floor. So this theoretical notions in these storylines, for example, the theory of is an interestig way to exchange capital. social support, which is a common theoretical term that we look for. But if I talk with a scriptwriter and say, “Could you insert some I wrote about this in my book, The Turtle and the Peacock. It might drama lines into the script where you see there is social support be good to note that in the Netherlands we have a very strong for this new behavior?”, the scriptwriter would think, “what is public broadcasting system. I was able to help develop several she talking about, this social support?” Or when I talk about the entertainment education series in the Netherlands. For example, theoretical notion of anticipated regret – which is a term we use in Villa Borghese was a 13-episode series. Medical Center West was a health communication – they don’t know what it is either. hospital series. I also was able to work with Costa. Exactly 20 years So I figured that we could show them a short segment of their www.learcenter.org 10