Soap operas could save the world. Who knew? Soul City, one of the longest-running, most popular soaps in South Africa, is funded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and carries the messages of HIV prevention regularly (watch a clip here). And an article in Sunday’s Boston Globe makes the case that soaps are also changing the ways that communities view women’s rights and health issues:
“Soaps, it turns out, are shaping behavior in ways that are subtle, profound and, from the standpoint of global development experts, positive. A team of economists credits Brazilian TV ”novelas” for helping to dramatically lower a fertility rate that in 1960 was above six births per woman. Others have found that in India — where soaps dominate the airwaves — villages where people watch more TV give more responsibilities and rights to women and girls. Researchers in Rwanda have found that radio soap operas there can help defuse the country’s dangerous ethnic tensions. Turkish soap operas have set off a public debate about women’s roles in the Middle East. And research in the United States has found that health tips tucked into soaps have greater sticking power than with just about any other mode of transmission. In a surprising number of ways, soap operas are improving lives around the world.”