Transitions

In my studies of Entertainment Education I’ve learned that when writing an appropriate EE script whether it be on TV or radio, it is essential that there are three types of characters in a story.

1) Negative characters – these characters exhibit all the behaviors and attitudes on any issue that the program is trying to change in the general audience
2) Positive characters – a character (usually 1 or very few in number) that exhibits exactly the behaviors and attitudes on any issue the program is promoting. This is a role model.
3) Transitional characters – represent the majority of people who can waiver from negative to positive behaviors. Usually the audience relates more to this character.

Even though in real life I don’t choose to believe that no person is truly good or bad, I do like the concept of applying “transitional characters” to life. Since each of us are essentially in the transitional state of our characters for our entire lives that allows us to discover the negatives and positives to any situation/issue/problem. More importantly though then realizing oneself is a transitional character, is the knowledge of knowing that each and every person one interacts with is also a transitional character.

Here’s to the process of transitioning!

EE Phone Home!

What is the one thing you never leave home without? Other than your keys and wallet, chances are that one thing is probably a cell phone. According to cnet.com cell phone subscriptions are projected to reach 5 billion this year. With roughly 6.8 billion people around the globe, that’s a lot of annoying ringtones!

Furthermore, with iPhones, Blackberries and Androids on the market – more and more people are opting for smart phones that have access to the world wide web and can do magical things provided they choose their apps accordingly. As a former Jitterbug owner (don’t judge me for my octogenarian phone preference) I am blown away by the technology these hand held devices are capable of.

The future of Entertainment Education will be at the touch of a button, friends. To be precise, EE will be at the touch of a button on your cell phone. Think about it. Currently EE predominantly uses radio and television to convey messages about entertainment and well education of course. However, already we’ve seen the landscape of TV change by being able to record shows, stream them online, and download episodes for on-the-go pleasure on iPhones, iPods, and iPads. Radio (in the US) though convenient and affordable has dozens of competitors, most notably the advent of satellite radio and the widespread use of iPods.

What does all of this mumbo jumbo nonsense of entertainment and technology lead to? Your cell phone! If you do own a smart phone, well essentially you are walking around with a television, radio, laptop and phone all in one. And what better way to reach an audience than by phoning them!

Here in St. Lucia Blackberries are nearly as bountiful as sand. They’re literally everywhere. And for those who don’t own a Blackberry, it’s very easy to purchase a pay as you go type of phone which automatically comes with the ability to text.

Recently, a friend forwarded me a CNN article on a trend in apps which are aimed at improving health. There’s an entire world of cell phone apps created to help people diet, send daily affirmations, teach yoga poses etc.

According to the article, the leading guy in using cell phone technology to change behavior is B.J. Fogg who says, “Most people carry cell phones with them everywhere, making them a powerful tool in creating new habits in a person's daily routine, Programs designed to improve health habits operate through "triggers," or calls to action, which can be as simple as click here.”

In addition to Fogg’s vision and insight, there are also organizations out there like MobileActive.org, who use mobile technology for social impact. You can check out their blog for the numerous ways they use cell phones for good. One example they cited was how cell phones could be used to replace paper reporting methods faster in various countries in regards to food security efforts. Apparently the UN is going the way of the phone.

I’m personally excited to see where and how EE and cell phones will blur the traditional lines of communication and utilize each other to reach people across the globe in various efforts of social change. Imagine a world where you send texts to loved ones and friends and then only a moment later to turn around and receive a text by your favorite character on your favorite TV show to do something as simple as recycle.

This is your brain on media

Remember that commercial: this is your brain? Now this is your brain on drugs. Egg cracks! Whoosh. And there goes your brain all fried in a gooey tasty yummy sunny side up dish.
Well . . . today I’m going to tell you what happens to your brain as you watch shows . . . perhaps even as you read this blog. This will be a little participatory, so go ahead and relax, kick back.

First – have you eaten breakfast today? Do you need a little snacky snack? Perfecto! Please go ahead and grab that breakfast bar next to you, those carrots, grapes… whatever you want to munch on. No, I’ll wait. Don’t worry. I’ll be right here.
…

Oh, you’re back? Is it tasty? Can I have some too?

How does this picture make you feel?
Does it give you the warm and fuzzies?

Now answer these trivia questions if you can. (Answers provided at end of post)
1. What three European countries begin with the letter A?
2. What became America’s first organized sport in 1664?
3. How many Rocky movies were made by 1990?

How this relates to a recent theory in Entertainment Education is with MacLean’s Triune Brain Theory. MacLean said that there are three brain centers where you process messages. These brain centers are the neo-cortex (intelligence), visceral (emotions), and reptilian (physical urges).

When you’re born, you begin with a reptilian brain and then develop your visceral brain and finally a neo-cortex capability. A reptilian center processes messages about food, sex, and aggressiveness, while the visceral center processes emotional messages, things that tug at your heart strings. The neo-cortex center processes intellectual activity and according to MacLean is only found in human beings.

MacLean believes that when the neo-cortex brain is out of whack with the two other brains that this leads to conflict in a person’s inner drives. Imagine that you are angry at someone, but logically you don’t want to react with punching and fighting. If a person’s three brain dimensions are not developed in synch, then one may find themselves in great inner turmoil as to what the actual response would be.

Thus, in EE programs, it the goal to stimulate both the reptilian and visceral brains by virtue of its entertainment qualities, which can then feed into a neo-cortex frame of thinking for audiences after viewing/listening to the program. When a person is able to pontificate about the scenes they just viewed in a program, it often gets them to question their societal norms and if/how these norms should be changed.

An example of a popular program that I think utilizes some of the neo-cortex and reptilian centers might be something like the Daily Show, which uses humor to convey current events.
As you go about your day today think about any of the ads that you come across and its message. What part of your brain is responding to it? Oh yes, now you might know why sex sells.

1) Albania, Andorra, Austria 2) horse racing 3) 5

Sending some love to Body Love

During my time here in St. Lucia I have been lucky enough to meet the neat people of Media for Health, an organization that produces a radio show called Body Love. Based out of Birmingham, Alabama, Body Love is a radio soap featuring Vanessa Love and Rosalyn Armstrong, hairdressers who deal with everything from family, love interests, hair, and… diabetes.

What’s neat about Body Love (for me) is that during my research on Entertainment Education I’ve read about some great projects from everywhere like India, St. Lucia and Mexico. But this is the first official EE radio project I’ve heard about in my country, the USA. After each program airs, Body Love features a call-in show where they take listener calls and provide medical answers to anything and everything health related.

I love what Media for Health is all about! In fact (and unfortunately) St. Lucia, where I’m currently based, has the highest per capita cases of diabetes in the world. According to Caribbean Net News – over 31,000 St. Lucians were diagnosed with diabetes in 2007. It hits home for me on a personal note as well. My grandmother was stricken with a serious case of diabetes. From an early age I remember every time my grandmother, Esperanza, visited us -- watching her with wonder as she gave herself insulin injections in her thigh. We always had orange juice in the house whenever she visited in case her blood sugar level was low. As a child I could never understand how one could give them self an injection, yet I couldn’t look away either. Eventually I found out that the medical reason behind Esperanza’s diabetes was that her pancreas wasn’t working like normal and was unable to break down sugars. When I was a little older my mother became diabetic.

Did you know that in the US diabetes affects minorities particularly African Americans and Hispanics at higher rates than Caucasians?

And at a conference on diabetes, Lars Rebien Sorensen, president and CEO of Novo Nordisk said "Diabetes will constitute the most significant public health challenge of the 21st century if no action is taken now. It is already causing as many deaths as HIV/AIDS. We need to explore practical ways of redefining healthcare, by focusing on the needs of people with diabetes."

The name “Esperanza” translates as hope. And in the spirit of my grandmother’s name I sincerely hope we can tackle this issue as it affects not only adults but a growing number of children. Type 2 diabetes was once informally called “adult on-set diabetes”, but now that so many children have been diagnosed with this illness, it is no longer an adult issue. It’s our disease as well as our future generation’s disease.

So with that – thank you Body Love and Media for Health for all you do! Keep up the programming and here’s to a positive (sugar) balanced future. ; )

Catch episodes of Body Love at http://www.soph.uab.edu/bodylove/

Jerry Bruckheimer might be altering your behaviors

Last week I asked you to participate in a survey which posed the question how do you pronounce the word – Caribbean. Many of you answered, and interestingly enough some of you replied to me with answers that weren’t even options on the survey. I’ve included a bar graph below of the responses.

And here were emails about the survey that I received:

“I said “Cuh-RIB-ee-an” my entire life until Pirates of the “Care-uh-BEE-uhn” came out, and in the years since, I have said it as such. Media shaping my behavior, there you have it.”

--Alex Thomas, Clinton School Director of Admissions

“I answered your survey but for me it depends on the context! For the Disney ride/movie, I pronounce it "Pirates of the CARE-uh-be-un", but in all other cases is Cah-RIB-be-un.”

--Anna Strong, Clinton School class representative

“I cannot take the survey due to its not covering all possible answers. I use both pronunciations, and the one I choose depends on the context. That should be an option.“

--Adam Moreland, Clinton School kickball captain

So apparently only people with the letter A in their first name were so enraged or disagreed with the survey itself that they bothered to point it out to me. ; ) Don’t fret A’s – an evaluator does these things on purpose. The fact that media plays such an important part on your pronunciation is very telling. The fact that previously prior to the release of Pirate of the Caribbean, some of you stuck with one pronunciation and now say it depends on the context is also very telling. (Jerry Bruckheimer, if you’re reading this some of us want to know how you picked CARE-uh-bee-un vs kuh-RIH-been-un. Were there focus groups? Did you visit the Caribbean and ask the people? Did you think one pronunciation would produce a bigger box office hit than the other?)

What’s interesting about this movie when thinking from a public service perspective is that essentially what Jerry Bruckheimer did was put a face to a pronunciation. Jack Sparrow’s face to be exact. During the workshop last week, Dr. Singhal shared with the conference participants an interesting thing about education entertainment and measuring its effectiveness.

For the first time ever an EE program did something that was remarkable. Apwé Plezi, a program on family planning in St. Lucia, introduced a new term to the community. Within the show the characters began calling condoms “catapults.” It didn’t take long before St. Lucians began to refer to condoms as catapults too, and then began to purchase the “catapult” brand condoms that were being sold in stores. When asked where did they hear about “catapult” they would point directly to the show. Ah ha! The EE program on family planning is taking effect. And more importantly when a researcher asked another St. Lucian where they heard about “catapult” – and he didn’t hear the program but heard about “catapults” from a friend – then it became evident that Apwé Plezi was making a very real and effective change in the community. In fact, the population rate decreased from 3.4 to 2.3!

Thus by creating new terminology it’s like a marker which helps researchers like Dr. Singhal figure out the impact of an Entertainment Education program. Creating our own terminology also assists us in shaping our own worlds and realities. So, today I encourage you to make up your own markers with new and fascinating words!