Television Drama and Audience Identification

This 7-page document discusses an evaluation of Tsha Tsha, a multi-part entertainment-education (EE) television drama series in South Africa which focuses on young people living in a world affected by HIV/AIDS and other social problems. The series uses the concept of “identification”, often thought of as a central mechanism within educational television production. Identification is related to the notion that, by representing certain characters or processes in particular ways, audience members come to adopt similar approaches in their own thinking, or integrate such thinking within their own practices.

The theoretical framework of identification provides a potentially useful foundation for guiding the development and implementation of an educational television series. Identification may be defined narrowly, with a specific focus on its relation to characters, or broadly, where other elements in the drama, including structural elements such as setting may be encompassed by the concept. Identification in this context is understood as including identification with: educational television, context, situations and challenges, and characters.

As detailed here, a number of studies have been designed to evaluate audience responses to the Tsha Tsha series. They have included quantitative and qualitative approaches, and have allowed opportunities to assess the concept of identification, as well as a range of related responses. Broader elements were also studied, including, for example, how viewing contexts informed understanding of how and where the series was watched, and how the show was discussed during and after viewing. The evaluation findings were used to guide the development of subsequent series.

Quantitative methods used included a 3-stage, questionnaire-based panel study to assess audience responses to the series in 3 settings: a metropolitan area, a small town, and a rural community. Systematic and random sampling methods were used. The panel of respondents comprised a base of 960 individuals aged 16-26, totalling 320 in each community. In the 3-stage panel process, questionnaires were administered after the first 4 episodes of Tsha Tsha, at the end of 13 episodes, and then at the end of 26 episodes, giving a time-lagged measure of the outcome variables. The completion rate at wave 2 was 88% and at wave 3 was 81%.

Propensity score matching was used to analyse the responses to the series (This fulfilled one of the aims of the research: to develop useful research tools for evaluating responses to mass-media education programmes). The propensity score method is designed to overcome the problem of confounding variables that influence exposure being associated with outcome variables. The authors claim that, via this method, it is possible to establish equivalent exposed and unexposed groups and to control for exposure to the series as a primary variable.

Questionnaires combined a range of demographic, attitudinal, behavioural measures and indices with specific measures designed to understand perceptions of, and responses to, the series. Qualitative methods included a range of approaches, taking place at various stages of the broadcast of the series spanning over 40 episodes. These included focus group discussions (FGDs) conducted with male and female respondents in the 3 study sites in the 16-26 age range; discussions with separate male and female groups and mixed groups; and interviews with a wide age of respondents in diverse sites including students, youth, and persons living with HIV/AIDS.

The paper concludes as follows: “A theoretical framework provides a useful foundation for guiding the development and implementation of an educational television series. The concept of identification was used in Tsha Tsha as a mechanism for drawing viewers into the lives and perspectives of characters, and this in turn, was related to the development of approaches to problem solving (expressed educationally as lessons). Viewers identified with the series as a whole, including characters, and this extended to the point that particular values and problem-solving strategies were internalized. This was expressed as ‘caring about’, and ‘wanting to be like’ particular characters in the drama. Quantitative and qualitative research methods allowed for processes of identification to be measured and these findings were used to guide the development of subsequent series.”