Social norms theory and measurement in entertainment-education: Insights from case studies in four countries

Abstract

This chapter starts by defining social norms in entertainment-education (EE) and provides an overview of social norms constructs and theories. The chapter next presents social norms case studies from the authors' work as EE researchers in four countries. The first case study measures changes in social norms in India as a result of the television program Kyunki...Jeena Issi Ka Naam Hai (Because... That's What Life Is). The second case study is from Mozambique, where the authors investigated the role of social norms from the Ouro Negro (Black Gold) radio program. The third case study examined social norms from a TV drama in Bangladesh: Icchedana (On the Wings of Wishes). And the final case study is from Zambia, where social norms measurement tools were tested with hopes of scaling across EE programs. The chapter concludes with lessons learned from the authors' collective experiences studying social norms and EE.