Employment of Live Mass Information/Entertainment in Terms of Broad Principles of Entertainment Education

This 96-page report offers a description of the strategy underpinning an initiative implemented by the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Department of Education and Culture Life Skills Division called the JAE (Just About Education) HIV/AIDS Information Tour. As indicated by the tour tagline (JAE), the project drew on the power of celebrity - "Jae" is a prominent pop star with "enormous popularity among the youth of South Africa." As a role model and AIDS activist, Jae communicates with high school learners about HIV/AIDS, spreading the message about HIV/AIDS and promoting positive lifestyles at schools in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban. In addition, the show's organisers were able to recruit actors and popular radio disc jockeys to educate learners about AIDS and communicate through song, dance, narration and drama, emphasising the message that "HIV/AIDS is real! HIV/AIDS kills! HIV/AIDS can be avoided!" With Jae at the helm, the month-long production visited all the KZN high schools that excelled in the grade 12 examinations in 2003 - a total of 46 - and spread its message to 18,000 learners.

The subject of this evaluation is one particular stop on the tour: the performance at KwaSanti Secondary School (Marianhill). Drawing on this example, the research project seeks to assess the effectiveness of the Information Tour in conveying knowledge and fostering attitude change regarding HIV/AIDS among young South Africans. Researchers elicited the response of the learners of KwaSanti Secondary School to the campaign's use of live mass information and entertainment in the form of prominent figures, music, and drama. Specifically, on March 10 2004 (the date of the JAE HIV/AIDS Information Tour performance), 5 girls and 5 boys participated in a focus group discussion; this was followed by post-evaluation research (another focus group with the same 10 learners) on April 19 2004.

The researchers' approach is based on a comparison between the JAE performance and the South African tradition of using mass meetings as a form of public communication during the anti-apartheid struggles of the 1980s. ("Mass meetings can be seen as a large gathering of people intended to stimulate enthusiasm, alert the audience to urgent issues and/or to mobilise people against a common enemy. This is what the JAE play was trying to do, mobilise the learners against the HIV/AIDS epidemic.") Undergirding the specifics of this evaluation, then, is the broader question: Does the tradition of mass mobilisation, developed as a communication form to oppose Apartheid, have comparable effectiveness as a health promotion strategy, specifically with regard to HIV/AIDS in modern South Africa?


To approach this question, the researchers sought to understand and explain how the Information Tour draws on broader principles of Entertainment Education (EE). To that end, the report begins by reviewing various theories, including Communication Design and Evaluation System (CODES), social marketing theory, diffusion of innovations theory, and social cognitive (learning) theory.

Using each of these major EE theories, the researchers analyse the results of the perfomance. They then address the question motivating their research, and come to the following conclusion: "Many health promotions, plays, and speakers in South Africa today still use mass meeting tactics in order to inform and mobilise the public against certain health risks (Tesfu, 2003). However, health risks and disease, especially AIDS, is not a physical enemy which one can oppose by means of political mobilization methods. Unlike politics, a disease like AIDS tends to act through the way people conduct their intimate affairs, and by virtue of this is a somewhat more private matter. Furthermore, the mass meeting generally deals with political knowledge and attitude change, and does not necessarily address factors crucial to confronting HIV such as, 'psychological relationship, cultural affective-arousal, [and] situational influences that surround and inform the context for human sexual behaviour' (Kelly & Kalichman, 1995:907).Therefore it is important that interpersonal communication is included in health promotion. [emphasis added]"

Excerpts from the "Recommendations" section follow:

"The JAE production did not look at any of the broader social contexts surrounding HIV/AIDS. Part of the reason for this is that the cast members wanted to focus on a simple message, as they were concerned that the message would be too complex for second language English speakers....However, research revealed that the broader social messages surrounding the activities around sexual and reproductive health needed to be explored....Many of the learners felt that sexual violence needed to be incorporated more into the production...

...Many of the teachers and learners felt that educational tools, such as posters or booklets, should have been distributed in order for further reflection after the performance....Reinforcement could also take the form of other entertainment plays that could visit the school repeating the message....The once-off JAE performance was not sufficient to create an attitude and behaviour change. Behaviour change is known to occur over long periods of time and thus an ongoing, long-term campaign needed to be undertaken. Long-term support from various government departments is essential for the success of a strategy in creating behaviour change...

Relating to the findings of the performance as a mass meeting, it is suggested that more institutions (large and small) should be involved. This would create a supportive environment, which would enable behaviour change. For example local churches could have been invited to view the play and use the message from the performance in their sermons and activities in order for reinforcement to occur....Another example is that a few of the clinics in the local area should have been invited to watch the JAE performance; they could have spoken to the learners about HIV/AIDS, and maybe even distributed free condoms. They could have also done a demonstration regarding how to use condoms safely...and they could have...dispelled the many myths surrounding the use of condoms. They could have also highlighted the fact that the learners are always welcome to come to the clinics and discuss issues that they are worried about and need advice on...

...The Department of Education and Culture should have either contracted professional communicators or used the professional communicators to act in a supervisory role....Those approached should be already active in the field of health communication and public service communication and show an understanding of the strategies outlined this proposal. Partnerships need to be developed between the communication agencies contracted and between them and the target audiences. These agencies should have a proven record...

It is imperative that the campaign planners of the JAE HIV/AIDS performance needed to have conducted research at every stage of the health campaign....They should have used a process such as CODES, which would have guided them in designing, implementing and evaluating the impact of their programme....For example, if they had followed the CODES model and conducted pre-intervention research, the JAE cast members would have known to include a HIV positive person in the performance...Research conducted during the intervention could have corrected further problems and summative evaluation would give insight into improvement for further productions."