A story sticks better than a case study

Taste the power of storytelling on the Media Impact site to brand their work. Soon a CEC e-learning course on story telling to trigger action for biodiversity will be on line on: www.frogleaps.org. Now compare this story with the same content now packaged as an case study or informative brochure:

PCI Media Impact is a pioneer and world leader in Entertainment-Education and communications for social change. For more than 25 years, we have advanced the well-being of vulnerable populations by improving knowledge, shifting locally-determined attitudes and changing behaviors toward critical social issues. Working in a capacity- building model, through our My Community approach, our unique strategy of storytelling allows millions to live healthier lives, sustainably, and in harmony with their natural world.

Together with our partners around the world, PCI Media Impact has produced more than 5,000 episodes of 100 serial television and radio productions reaching more than one billion people in over 45 countries.

Our programs have increased knowledge, changed attitudes and facilitated behavior change on some of the most pressing issues of our time, including violence against women, HIV/AIDS prevention, sustainable development, reproductive health, human rights and democracy. Currently, Media Impact is working in more than 30 countries throughout Latin America, the Caribbean, North America, Africa, Asia and the United States.

We work using Entertainment-Education (E-E). E-E, sometimes called Edutainment, is the process of purposely designing and implementing a media message both to entertain and educate, in order to increase audience members’ knowledge about an educational issue, create favorable attitudes and change overt behavior.

Even in written form a story is more sticky:

In 1984 the Father of Entertainment-Education Miguel Sabido, met with our founder and Indira Ghandi to launch a program in India. The program, Hum Log, was a success: it soared to the top of entertainment charts and drew a regular viewing audience of more than 50 million people. It also began to shift family planning practices. We knew we were on to something, and so continued producing radio and television programs to promote family planning throughout Asia and Africa.

During one of these programs a young character, Shandi, asked a question on the radio drama Taru that echoed throughout Bihar, India: “Why don’t I have a birthday?” Little girls in Bihar didn’t celebrate their birthdays. Only boys did. Over the course of a few weeks, Shandi, aided by a social worker, Taru, planned and hosted her birthday party. Soon after the broadcasts, girls throughout Bihar began to celebrate their birthdays.

But the change didn’t stop there. Birthdays were symbolic of other inequalities – who went to school, who ate first, who received the best medical care. These things started changing too. An entire village decided it was

time for all little girls to receive an education, so that year little girls got to go with their brothers to school. Each of our 100 programs has a Shandi, someone who asks the seemingly simple question that transforms a society.