{"id":119259,"date":"2020-11-04T15:29:45","date_gmt":"2020-11-04T14:29:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=119259"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:25:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:25:12","slug":"using-soaps-entertainment-and-influencers-to-promote-healthy-pro-social-behaviour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2020\/11\/04\/using-soaps-entertainment-and-influencers-to-promote-healthy-pro-social-behaviour\/","title":{"rendered":"Using soaps, entertainment and influencers to promote healthy, pro-social behaviour"},"content":{"rendered":"

From a donor heart in the series \u2018Medisch Centrum West\u2019 to influencers who broach the subject of condoms. Entertainment-Education has changed along with the media landscape in general. Last week, Roel Lutkenhaus earned a cum laude distinction for his dissertation \u2018Entertainment-Education in the New Media Landscape’.<\/p>\n

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Roel Lutkenhaus<\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLevien Willemse<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

What did you focus on in your doctoral research?<\/strong><\/p>

\u201cThe Entertainment-Education strategy. This strategy originated in the 1960s and \u201970s \u2013 when the entertainment industry realised that they could encourage healthy and pro-social behaviour through soaps and entertainment. It didn\u2019t take long before people starting applying this insight all over the world: in the Netherlands, for example, it can be seen from the 1980s on in programmes like \u2018Medisch Centrum West<\/em>\u2019 and \u2018Nederland in Beweging<\/em>\u2019. This was often at the initiative of health organisations. For example, an episode about a donor heart on \u2018Medisch Centrum West\u2019 was produced in collaboration with the Heart Foundation.<\/p>

\u201cThe traditional focus of entertainment-education has been on mass media like radio and television. My dissertation examines how this can be translated to the current media landscape. In this context, you don\u2019t target a large, passive mass audience, but work together with influencers, for example, to initiate dialogue about health and social themes with a variety of target audiences.\u201d<\/p>\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018Since the arrival of the internet, audiences have been talking back\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

Dialogue rather than simple health messages, in other words?<\/strong><\/p>

\u201cCorrect. Since the arrival of the internet, audiences have been talking back. You see people organising themselves into groups online, where they consume the same media and play a far more active role than before. In this sense, it\u2019s important for the government and health organisations to approach entertainment-education as a form of dialogue. Online stories can broach specific subjects and raise questions, which in turn encourage people to exchange ideas and perspectives. In other words, you focus on other things besides changing people\u2019s knowledge and attitudes via media exposure. Dialogue can lead to a bottom-up shift in societal norms. In the future, public health communication will follow an inclusive route: shaped together with the audience.\u201d<\/p>

What does this look like in practice?<\/strong><\/p>

\u201cOne of the chapters in my study deals with an entertainment-education programme in India (Main Kuch Bhi Kar Sakti Hoon<\/em><\/a>, or \u2018I, A Woman, Can Achieve Anything\u2019). This series deal with gender equality \u2013 revolving around the concept of an \u2018extended engagement\u2019, among other things. The series uses a gripping storyline to introduce this option as an alternative to child marriages and arranged marriages. The basic idea is that if you wait with getting married, you\u2019ll have time to obtain a degree, start on your career and consequently lay the foundations for an equal relationship within your marriage. The producers\u2019 online strategy was to invite people to share their personal experiences. And they got the desired response, with people explaining why an extended engagement was a good idea. They adopted it as their own idea, as it were, and gave it real-life context through their personal accounts. And other people who read it may be inspired to change their behaviour too. This could be just enough to achieve a shift in people\u2019s attitudes.<\/p>

\u201cA Dutch example would be Soa Aids Nederland. This organisation quickly realised that its young target audience was moving from television to YouTube \u2013 and responded accordingly. For example, it initiated an online condom campaign that specifically targeted young women. Research showed that they wanted to use condoms but didn\u2019t take them with them because they were afraid of being thought of as a \u2018slut\u2019. In partnership with beauty influencers, the foundation initiated a public discussion about this subject, online, that evoked a lot of reactions \u2013 and proved very effective.\u201d<\/p>

Do people still use the traditional mass media approach too?<\/strong><\/p>

\u201cYes, particularly in the case of major campaigns \u2013 albeit often in combination with other channels. This is called the trans-media approach. Mass media channels like television are suited for telling a very clear story, which you can use to broach a variety of other subjects later on within smaller online communities.\u201d<\/p>\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018Using complex mathematics to manipulate people into buying more stuff started to bother me.\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

How did you arrive at this research subject?<\/strong><\/p>

\u201cI had been working in online marketing for close to a decade, in Enschede. There, we used complex mathematics to manipulate people into buying more stuff. This started to bother me, so I began looking for alternative ways to use this knowledge \u2013 to promote green energy, for instance, or help an NGO. I eventually ended up at Erasmus University and the Center for Media & Health: a very interesting collaboration that laid the groundwork for the present dissertation. I can\u2019t imagine it having worked out better. I\u2019m very happy that I can use marketing methods in the interest of public health and pro-social behaviour. In May, I started my own business in Rotterdam-Charlois. I want to merge the various creative strands found in South Rotterdam to promote a liberal, tolerant and sustainable society.\u201d<\/p>

Why did you decide against an academic career?<\/strong><\/p>

\u201cRight now, for example, I\u2019m working with youth workers and talent coaches on a concept that uses culture to enable adolescents to discover their talents \u2013 be it rap, poetry or dance. I try to help them set things in motion when it comes to issues that are specifically important to them. And in South Rotterdam, I\u2019m a lot closer to the target group. If you do something like this on campus, people are less likely to join in. So for me, it was important to set up in the actual neighbourhood.\u201d<\/p>\n\t

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