Soap Operas and Development: Good Trash

肥皂剧与发展：肥皂剧也可以有用

How television and radio shows can improve behaviour

电视和广播怎样改进人们的行为

In the radio drama “Nau em Taim” (“Now is the time” in Pidgin) aired in Papua New Guinea, a widowed father takes up dynamite fishing – profitable but disastrous for the reef. Then he meets a dashing marine scientist who warns him off. The idea is that by the end of the drama, which debuted in February, both he – and the listeners – will renounce dynamite for sustainable fishing.

在巴布亚新几内亚播出的广播剧“Nautica em Taim”（用洋泾浜英语说就是“现在是时候了”）中，一个丧偶的父亲开始从事用炸药捕鱼的行当——利润可观但对珊瑚危害很大。之后他遇见一位冲劲儿十足的海洋专家，这个人警告他不要再从事这项行业。这部于二月首播的广播剧的主旨就是播到剧尾的时候，这个父亲和听众都将谴责炸药对捕鱼业可发展性的危害。

The show’s producer, the Population Media Center (PMC) in Vermont, has been a pioneer of programmes with the goal of fostering development. But other groups have increasingly followed suit. In Vietnam Khat Vong Song uses radio drama to teach its listeners about domestic violence. In Kenya Mediae promotes civil rights with a television soap called “Makutano Junction”.

该广播剧的制作方式佛蒙特州的人口传媒中心（PMC）是通过电视广播节目来促进发展方面的先锋。不过其他机构也在不断效仿。在越南，Khat Vong Song使用广播剧向听众教授家庭暴力方面的知识。肯尼亚的Mediae通过电视剧《Makutano Junction》推广民权。

Evidence that radio and television soaps can change behaviour was first spotted in the 1970s. But solid academic research was lacking until a few years ago. In 2008 economists at the Inter-American Development Bank, for instance, found that Brazilians receiving Globo, a television network, had fewer children and got divorced more often. Another study discovered that, as cable television spread, the fertility rate in rural India dropped by as much as if women had received five additional years of education.

能证明广播剧和电视剧可以改变人们的行为方式的证据首次出现在上个世纪70年代。但是直到前几年才有可靠的学术研究出现。比如2008年，在美洲发展银行的经济学家们发现收看电视网络Globo的巴西人生的孩子较少、离婚更频繁。另一项研究发现，随着有线电视的普及，印度乡村地区的生育率降低的程度相当于妇女再接受五年的额外教育。

Some thought that this was because couch potatoes were less likely to make babies. But research in Ethiopia showed that dramas can have a direct effect. Demand for contraceptives rose by 157% among married women who listened to the soap operas “Yeken Kignet” and “Dhimbibba”. Male listeners sought tests for HIV/AIDS four times as much as male non-listeners.

有些人认为这是因为终日懒散在家的人造人的可能性更小。然而，在埃塞俄比亚进行的一项研究显示肥皂剧能起直接的作用。在收听肥皂剧《Yeken Kignet》和《Dhimbibba》的已婚妇女中要求使用避孕手段的人数增加了157%。男性听众寻求HIV/AIDS测试的人数是不收听节目的男性中寻求测试的人数的四倍。

“The best results are when people identify with characters,” says Betty Oala of the PMC. This is why the organisation does extensive research, takes on local writers and uses native languages.

“最好的结果出现在人们与角色产生共鸣的时候。”PMC的贝蒂·Oala说。这就是为什么该组织要进行大规模研究、吸收当地作者、使用当地语言的原因。

Not only are soaps effective, but they are also cheap. Radio programmes can cost as little as three cents to reach a listener in Africa. Yet trying to influence the poor can be controversial. Although producers do not hide their agendas, Charles Kenny, an economist, thinks that there could be a “quagmire of a debate over morals and a tangle of regulation”. An increase in divorces, say, may seem like good news to a woman activist, but bad to a Catholic priest.

肥皂剧不仅有效而且廉价。在非洲广播节目只需花费三分钱就能获得一位听众。但是试图影响穷人的做法可能充满争议。尽管制作方并未隐藏他们的计划，经济学家查尔斯·肯尼（Charles Kenny）认为“在道德和一堆规则之间争论的困境”可能存在。比如离婚的增加对一名妇女积极分子来说可能是个好消息，但对一位天主教牧师来说则是坏消息。

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