PROMOTING SOCIAL CHANGE THROUGH EDUTAINMENT: AN ANALYSIS OF YOLO

ABSTRACT With the growth of entertainment education serial dramas worldwide and the general evaluation research on their impacts on the audience, this study toed a different line by looking at the rationale behind the production, its contents and how the contents promote social change. Social change has received minimal consideration in edutainment research here in Ghana. By finding out how YOLO, an edutainment programme promotes social change through edutainment, interviewing the producer of the programme and reviewing the content of the programme to find out the social issues it projects and how it promotes social change were the objectives of the study. Data gathering consisted of an in-depth interview to find the rationale behind the programme, watching the drama to identify the social change issues raised and analysing reviews and comments from the official social media platforms of the programme. The Sabido Methodology was used to address each of the principles associated with the strategic health communication characteristics that were discovered in the programme and through the interview with the producer who doubles as the director. Data obtained was examined and analysed in line with the study objectives. The study found that the programme was designed to address adolescent reproductive health issues as well as some other social issues. It also had most of the characteristics of an effective edutainment programme. The study also resulted in useful findings for producers, script writers and directors of edutainment programmes that address social issues. The edutainment programme was well weaved together with the social issues in a nice dramatic way to attract viewers to watch and be educated as they are being entertained. It was therefore recommended that, other producers who would want to undertake an edutainment project such of this nature, should consider watching YOLO or analysing it as it has most of the characteristics Sabido ascribed to make an edutainment programme an effective one.