How can mass media meaningfully shift attitudes and behaviours in developing countries?
Editor's note: This episode of VoxDevTalks is also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.
In this episode of VoxDevTalks, Amber Peterman presents new evidence on the effectiveness of edutainment—educational entertainment—as a tool to reduce violence against women and children. Drawing from her recent review, Peterman unpacks the research on how media interventions can shift attitudes and behaviours in powerful ways.
What is edutainment and how does it work?
Edutainment blends education with entertainment, embedding social messages within engaging storylines.
“The simple definition… is just anything combining education plus entertainment, so embedding educational messages in a somewhat entertaining storyline.”
But the concept exists on a continuum—from purely educational development programming to mainstream media with subtle messages.
The goal of edutainment is to spark awareness, debate, and, ultimately, behavioural change around critical social issues.
“Audiences get immersed and even emotionally invested in some storyline, and they absorb without maybe even realising it.”
The psychological mechanism draws on role model and social learning theory, using fictional characters as ‘super peers’ to model positive behaviours.
Peterman highlights the global and historical roots of edutainment: from Sesame Street to telenovelas in Latin America. A growing body of research suggests that edutainment is also effective at influencing public health behaviours.
Why use edutainment to tackle violence?
The scale of violence against women and children is staggering. Peterman’s review focuses on four types:
- Violence against women
- Violence against children
- Child, early, and forced marriage
- Female genital mutilation (FGM)
The statistics she cites are alarming:
- 27% of women have experienced intimate partner violence.
- Two-thirds of children regularly face violent punishment at home.
- 20% of young women aged 20 to 24 were married under the age of 18.
Traditional information campaigns have not had significant impact, while smaller, high-intensity interventions (e.g. community mobilisation or couple-based therapy) have shown promise but struggle with scale and cost.
With the rise of social media and internet access, edutainment offers scalable, low-cost potential to reach hard-to-access audiences.
What does the evidence on edutainment say?
Peterman conducted a review of 21 quantitative studies (RCTs and quasi-experimental designs) set in low- and middle-income countries. Most were published after 2019, indicating that this is an emerging field of research.
The results are encouraging: 71% of these studies found that edutainment led to shift towards anti-violence attitudes and norms, and 64% showed edutainment reduced experiences of violence.
However, Peterman cautions that results vary based on factors such as delivery method, audience, and media type.
“In some cases, men would report no impacts. Maybe women would report impacts… So, you get a lot of diversity once you drill down.”
Interestingly, four studies showed adverse effects—often a result of increased reporting rather than actual increases in violence.
“Either participants were becoming more aware of what constituted violence… or they were becoming more willing to report because of changing attitudes or social desirability effects.”
Edutainment: What works and what doesn’t
Violence against women
Most of the interventions covered in the review had implications for violence against women. Of these, 57% found protective effects on behaviours and 69% showed improvements in attitudes and norms.
One example of this includes a study in Vietnam where young male university students watched a web-based serial drama (Yount et al. 2022). One year later, they reported reduced sexually violent behaviour.
Female genital mutilation (FGM)
Of the four studies on FGM, three showed reductions in pro-FGM attitudes. One of these studies on Senegal—an evaluation of TV series C’est la vie!—even found actual behavioural impact (Hidrobo et al. 2025):
“One of the main protagonists took her daughter to get cut, and her daughter ends up dying in the process.”
After viewing, parents were less likely to report their daughters being cut—even nine months later.
Violence against children
This is an underexplored area: only one study on Tanzania was included, which evaluated the impact of a radio show (Green et al. 2023). Unfortunately, it showed no reduction in attitudes or behaviours, possibly due to low exposure.
Child marriage
Eight studies evaluated child, early, and forced marriage: 75% found protective effects on behaviours and 63% showed improved attitudes.
One impactful example of this included a study evaluating the impact of 10-minute video screening of street theatre in rural Pakistan, followed by facilitated discussions (Cassidy et al. 2024). Despite the large and consistent impacts on child marriage, results varied based by gender.
How does edutainment create change?
Peterman identifies four behavioural mechanisms through which edutainment operates:
- Information channel: Educating audiences about the law, risks, and consequences.
- Individual persuasion: Role modelling through relatable characters.
- Norm diffusion: Fostering the belief that others are also changing their stance.
- Service linkage: Encouraging viewers to seek services or engage in additional interventions.
Lessons for designing successful edutainment
Peterman’s insights are grounded not just in research but also her collaboration with artists and producers. She highlights three key lessons:
- Create compelling, memorable characters: Success depends on emotionally engaging storytelling—if the narrative fails to connect with the audience, it is unlikely to have any meaningful impact.
- Engage men and boys: It is essential to capture male attention, encouraging men to actively share and discuss these messages within their own communities.
- Link to broader change: Edutainment should ripple outward, connecting to services, movements or further programmes.
Challenges and future directions of edutainment
While edutainment shows promise, there are gaps—especially around cost-effectiveness.
“Unfortunately, none of the studies in the review looked at cost effectiveness with respect to violence.”
This emphasises the need for future evaluations in real-world settings beyond small-scale pilots.
Another emerging frontier is social media and digital platforms. Peterman stresses the importance of using all available platforms for edutainment including, but not limited to, graphic novels, videogames, and virtual reality.
Final thoughts: A promising path ahead
Overall, Peterman remains optimistic about the future of edutainment:
“I think this is a super promising area of work and interventions… it will become increasingly useful and impactful in the future.”
As the development field seeks scalable, cost-effective ways to reduce violence, edutainment stands out as a unique, creative, and increasingly evidence-based solution—one that is just beginning to realise its full potential.
Acknowledgement: The review discussed in this podcast was funded by the Prevention Collaborative, a global network to end violence against women and children, and conducted prior to Peterman joining UNICEF; the review does not represent the views or opinions of UNICEF.
References
Cassidy, R, A Dam, W Janssens, U Kiani, and K Morsink (2024), “Targeting men, women or both to reduce child marriage,” Unpublished manuscript.
Green, D P, D W Groves, C Manda, B Montano, and B Rahmani (2023), “A radio drama’s effects on attitudes toward early and forced marriage: Results from a field experiment in rural Tanzania,” Comparative Political Studies, 56(8): 1115–1155.
Hidrobo, M, M Dione, J Heckert, A Le Port, A Peterman, and M Seye (2025), “C’est La Vie!: Mixed impacts of an edutainment television series in West Africa,” Unpublished manuscript.
Peterman, A (2025), “Edutainment to prevent violence against women and children,” The World Bank Research Observer, lkaf002.
Yount, K M, I Bergenfeld, K M Anderson, Q T Trang, J M Sales, Y F Cheong, and T H Minh (2022), “Theoretical mediators of GlobalConsent: An adapted web-based sexual violence prevention program for university men in Vietnam,” Social Science & Medicine, 313: 115402.