Theories

Entertainment-Education uses a blend of core communication theories and fundamental entertainment pedagogy to guide the preparation of the programming. Additionally the CDC has a tip sheet available on its website that provides additional guidance for writers and producers [2].

The major communication theories that influence Entertainment-Education include:

    * Persuasion Theory: (Aristotle, Petty, Cacioppo) Psychological characteristics affect the response of a person to messages.[3] Also indicates the message and source factors that influence a person's response such as the credibility, attractiveness, and expertise of the source.
    * Theory of Reasoned Action: (Ajzen, Fishbein) Social influences affect behavior, including beliefs and perceived social norms.[4]
    * Social Learning Theory: (Bandura) People learn by observing others and the consequences of their behavior. If the person so chooses, they then emulate the behavior by rehearsing the action, taking action, comparing their experiences to the experiences of others, and then adopting the new behavior.[5]
    * Diffusion Theory: (Rogers) Behavior spreads through a community or group over a period of time. Television may plant the idea, but social networks reinforce it and cause it to grow.[6]

Pedagogy involved with Entertainment-Education include:

    * Relevance: Learning is more likely when people can see the usefulness of the knowledge they are given.
    * Incremental Learning: Learning is most effective when people can learn at their own pace.
    * Distributed Learning: (Fossard) Different people learn in different ways over different periods of time. It is important to present information differently so that people can absorb it.[citation needed]

Etymology

The term edutainment was used as early as 1948 by The Walt Disney Company to describe the True Life Adventures series.[citation needed].

The noun edutainment is a neologistic portmanteau used by Robert Heyman in 1973 while producing documentaries for the National Geographic Society.[1] It was also used by Dr. Chris Daniels in 1975 to encapsulate the theme of his Millennium Project. This project later became known as The Elysian World Project.[citation needed]

Edutainment can be used to describe various learning modules.

Overview

It can be argued that edutainment has existed for millennia in the form of parables and fables that promoted social change.

Modern forms include television productions, film, museum exhibits, and computer software which use entertainment to attract and maintain an audience, while incorporating deliberate educational content or messages.

Since the 1970s, various groups in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Latin America have used edutainment to address such health and social issues as substance abuse, immunization, teenage pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, and cancer. Initiatives in major universities, such as Johns Hopkins University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, NGOs such as PCI-Media Impact, and government agencies such as the Center for Disease Control (CDC) have produced edutainment content.

One form of edutainment popular in Latin America is the educational telenovela. Miguel Sabido, a producer of telenovelas from the 1970s on, has combined communication theory with pro-health/education messages to educate audiences throughout Latin America about family planning, literacy, and other topics. He developed a model which incorporated the work of Albert Bandura and other theorists, as well as research to determine whether programs impacted audience behavior.