Computer Mediated Communication as a Means Of Assessing Entertainment Education in Africa

Below are excerpts from the full case study.

Introduction

"Entertainment Education (EE), also known as edutainment, has emerged in the past twenty years as a viable communication strategy for promoting pro-social values and behavior. This mixing of dramatic entertainment appeal and educational content has been used deliberately in at least forty countries, especially in the developing world, to combat social ills such as wife burning, and to promote healthy lifestyles, especially in disease prevention. EE campaigns usually take a multi-media approach, often centered on radio, television or film projects, and supported by other communication channels such as community theatre print and small group interaction.

In the past decade, Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) has emerged as a rapidly adopted innovation, creating communities that could not have been formed otherwise (Clarke, n.d.). By 2002, internet users worldwide were estimated to be about 581 million (CIA). However, EE campaigns have been slow to adopt CMC as a viable message delivery system or as an evaluation channel. This is probably due largely to the lag in computer and internet access in countries where most EE projects are focused.

There is great disparity in numbers of internet users in the North and those in the South (which does not include Australia, New Zealand or South Africa). However, internet access, largely through cybercafés, is exploding in the development world, with some segments of Africa, for example, quickly catching up. Typically, most African internet users have been in the extreme North and South of the continent, but recently, Africans in the East and West are demonstrating a strong desire to use this new technology. This paper examines the initial results of an EE project, which has experimented with CMC in sub-Saharan Africa.

The paper looks at ‘Yellow Card’, a movie created to address issues of teen pregnancy and safe sex, debuted in April 2000. It was filmed in Zimbabwe by Media for Development Trust. Before it was produced, formative research was conducted among youth in Zimbabwean townships and suburbs. One-on-one interviews were conducted in English, Shona and Ndebele to assess challenges faced by young people. Researchers “got the details, the ideals, the fears, the loves, the hates, the confusions and the dreams” of young people (yellow-card.com). They identified several key issues important to them including sex, morality and AIDS. These issues then became the backbone of the Yellow Card story."

Lessons Learned

"Several lessons were learned in this study about using CMC in Africa.

• Africans will use CMC when it is made available. The Yellow card website received 1,377,384 hits in the year between May 2002 and April 2003. In approximately the same time period, some 1,800 emails were sent by viewers to the characters and producers. The largest national representation during the study period was by far from Nigeria, one of the countries in sub-Saharan African with the most internet users (outside of South Africa) (CIA Factbook, 2002). In some African regions, there was not only a lack of cybercafés, but also a lack of infrastructure (unreliable electricity, phone connections and internet providers) which do not facilitate CMC (Africa Struggles to Get Online). However, the proliferation of Cybercafés continues and will only increase in coming months and years.
• Some Africans using CMC were still quite unfamiliar with computer technology. Many posts to Yellow Talk asked for information which was readily available on the Yellow Card web site, and many posts contained no messages at all. Perhaps Africans have not been exposed to conversational “chat rooms” so did not realise the potential for peer interaction. Further studies could demonstrate the plausibility of continued CMC targeting of EE viewers.
• With current band widths (especially in Africa), web sites are still very text-based. Most of the responses (chat and email) showed unfamiliarity with basic English (Email and chat messages were shown in this paper as they were sent.) This functional illiteracy was probably due to diverse mother tongues and poor schooling. How successful can text-based CMC be for these types of audience members?
• Web sites can strengthen the brand name of an EE campaign and provide additional resources. All survey respondents said they would access information on social and health issues surrounding sex if it was provided on the site. With more strategic planning and financial backing, the web site could multiply the investment of the Yellow Card film and strengthen the overall effectiveness of the campaign. By keeping all features (competitions, subscriptions, etc.) functioning and adding new material on a regular basis, there is a high probability that viewers would continue to visit the site over time. This would increase campaign goals based on research that indicates that social relationships are formed and sustained over time (Horton and Wohl, Rubin and Perse, 1989, Auter, 1992).
• The use of strategic ambiguity in Yellow Card was to many viewers frustrating at best and open for misinterpretation at worst. The potential for lost or misunderstood messages could be remedied by providing additional information on possible consequences of sexual promiscuity through the web site.
• There is interest in translating the Yellow Card web site. Since Yellow Card has been translated into other languages, consideration might be given to making the site readable in some of those languages. For example, some emails and postings in Yellow Talk were in French, and a representative of a French-speaking NGO offered to help get the site translated.
• Viewers held great expectations for gaining personal access to the actors, and some expressed frustration when they did not receive answers to their emails. (Limited generic responses were returned by producers; the actors were not asked to participate in email communication). While an unrealistic expectation of real interaction may reflect limited media exposure or culture within the target audience, it may also have been encouraged by how viewers were invited to send email messages. Again, their choices were to email the three main characters, or to send questions or comments to the producers. An alternative system might be considered and tested for measuring audience feedback"

Conclusion

"Computer Mediated Communication can be part of a viable message delivery system in Entertainment Education campaigns in Africa. It can also be a viable form of gathering media effects data, and specifically for assessing the presence of Parasocial Interaction."