New home new life: Integrating people's stories in radio drama in Afghanistan

Abstract

Panellists have been challenged to consider how the research advances their thinking around the use of television and radio drama to achieve development objectives. Individual papers discuss dramas from four developing countries from Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Cambodia. In Afghanistan, New Home New Life weaves its storylines around the lives of three fictional village families. It raises a range of issues, including: repatriation, mines awareness, health and conflict resolution. The paper will examine the role of audience evaluation in informing new creative content and assessing the social realist fit of the drama. First broadcast across India in 2002, Jasoos Vijay is a television serial detective drama addressing HIV and AIDS and sexual health through its central character, an HIV positive detective. The drama employs a range of interactive strategies, all of which have been tested with the target audience. Wetin Dey, a Nigerian television drama, aims to reach a diverse ethnic, religious, linguistic, urban and rural population to address sexual health issues in general and HIV and AIDS in particular. The development of the drama and the research, focused particular attention on the resonance and audience engagement of key characters. In Cambodia, Taste of Life first aired on television in 2004. The programme conveyed key information about HIV and AIDS, road safety, people trafficking and maternal and child health. Audience research has highlighted the relative effectiveness of a variety of dramatic strategies and tactics.