Testing the Effectiveness 1
Testing the Effectiveness of an Entertainment-Education Health-Focused Soap
Opera: Exposure and Post-Discussion in Colombian Young Adults
In recent years, mass media have become popular sources of entertainment as well as
health information nearly world wide due in part to advances in technology and media
penetration. Various studies have shown that people are exposed more often to health
information through the mass media than they are to other traditional sources of
information, such as physicians or health facilities (Signorielli, 1990, 1993; Wahl, 1995),
However, health information provided by the media is not always accurate or educational.
Research on health related-issues in the media has found that information is not only
deceiving (Frost, Frank, & Maiback, 1997; Heeter, Perlstadt & Greeberg, 1984), inaccurate
(Signorielli, 1993; Smith, 1972), and outdated (Turow & Coe, 1985) but it can also lead
audiences to create false perceptions about different health-related topics (Rothblum, 1999;
Vargas & DePyssler, 1999).
Among the public health-related topics that are inaccurately portrayed in the media,
sexually activity has not only consistently increased in the mainstream media in the last
three decades (Greenberg, Fernandez-Collado, Graef, Korzenny & Atkin, 1979; Kunkel et
al., 1999; Kunkel, Eyal, Finnerty, Biely, & Donnerstein, 2005), but it also has been
misrepresented (Brown, 2002; Greenberg et al., 1987; Keller & Brown, 2002; Kunkel,
Cope-Farrar, Biely, Farinola, & Donnerstein, 2001; Larson, 1991). A content analysis
conducted among American mainstream media found that the percentage of shows
containing sexual intercourse had increased significantly in recent years: “Today 14% or
one in seven shows has a least one scene in which intercourse is depicted or strongly
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Convention