4th February, 2008
Rossetti Chi Lam Ng
#301035829
CMNS 428 short analysis-
Article: Entertainment –Education in HIV/AIDS communication
Author: Thomas Tufte
Nowadays, technology is developing rapidly; people become to have more choices of entertainments to spend their leisure time. While we have various media of entertainment such as TV, magazines and radio, some people is trying to instill educational elements to those media for our changing society. In Tufte’s article, he introduces the entertainment –education (EE) to readers. It is a new informal educational approach to educate people through different media such as TV drama and radio. Recently, EE is increasingly used in addressing health related issue such as HIV/AIDS. For a pandemic disease, EE is empowering the audience to face and prevent HIV in daily life.
However, Tufte also mentions that some people may controvert the appropriate level of balance between education and entertainment. People would like to assess the prospective and the limitation of entertainment –education in providing its educational purpose to mass audiences. Through the definition of media literacy, Tufte points out that social marketing in important in EE practice. In three different generation of entertainment –education, Tufte provides certain examples in the worldwide to proof entertainment- education is the new communication generation which also involve audiences in relation in education, development and social change. At the end of the article, Tufte also conclude that education is not just conveying information, but it should also work with people in a changing society, while entertainment should be a good platform to approach mass audiences in different level.
Personally, I think the perspective of Tufte’s article is interesting and impressing. From the last generation to recent days, there are still many people thinking that entertainment have nothing deal with education, or even against it. Education should be formal, which people usually learn formally from school and books. However, Tufte significantly shows that nowadays, entertainment and education can merge and interact together in this changing society. Entertainment-education may be even more powerful and influential than formal education since EE can reach more audiences in the society from different education level and background, while text media may only target to some spectacular group that can read the text. Moreover, as what Tufte has mentioned that people are the one who want to learn, they should also get involved in the entire education system other than just giving them information. While our society is changing rapidly, our education system should also be innovated. Under the traditional individuals education system, people are more passive while now entertainment- education can attract and get more attentions from audiences. In those examples, EE programs usually attract more audiences; they are popular and last of few years. Some of them may even broadcast in different countries. However, even though Tufte has shown some examples in his article, they could not proof that how many people are really educated or learn something from EE. It is excited that one media or one entertainment program can both entertain and educate millions of people in different countries. Basically, I agree the perspective of Tufte. Education is not just providing information; people should be one of the important concerns in education system. Entertainment will be a good path to approach audiences in order to teach them.