Soap opera and social change: Drama and development at the BBC world service

Abstract

"Edutainment" is a phrase coined to reflect the contemporary coupling of education with various genres of mass mediated and interpersonally communicated entertainment. Used extensively throughout the developing world to address a wide range of development issues - from landmine awareness to gender-based violence - the most widely used edutainment genre by far is that of radio and television 'soap opera'. This paper examines the use of the genre by the BBC World Service broadly, and by the World Service Trust specifically, it introduces a programme of research that will address critical aspects of the dramatisation process as it relates to the local translation of often complex social development issues within drama production. The companion to this analysis will be the discursive meanings derived from development-oriented radio and television drama by local audiences. Focusing on a range of soap operas produced in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Burma, India, Nigeria and Rwanda the paper will set out some of the key concepts and methods to be employed in the research, and will discuss the critical links evident between audiences, processes of audience evaluation and the creative labour of dramatisation already evident with such productions.