Reconciling public health and entertainment media: how can collaboration be effective?

Abstract

There is widespread ambiguity in public health about what constitutes effective collaboration and how to assess its effectiveness, despite the central role it plays in health promotion practice. This thesis examine intersectoral collaboration between the public health and media sectors in developing, implementing and evaluating entertainment-education programs to improve adolescent sexual and reproductive health. Four case studies from the Asia Pacific region were examined: (1) Indigenous radio drama (Australia); (2) Indigenous comic book and multi-media (Australia); (3) radio drama (Solomon Islands); (4) internet game (Philippines). Semi-structured interviews with media, health and community workers involved in the collaborations, and a content analysis of collaboration documents were undertaken. A best practice model – the Community Coalition Action Framework (CCAT) - was employed as an organising framework to facilitate inductive inquiry of the participant’s experiences. The experiences of the participants suggest that there are three key areas that should be considered when planning, implementing and evaluating intersectoral endeavours. First, the contextual factors in the environment which may impact on the work of the collaboration. I argue that certain strategies are required which address barriers and enhance enabling factors in the community. Those case study collaborations which did not address contextual factors were less successful in overcoming barriers, building on community capacity, and developing a suitable program for adolescents. Second, internal factors of the collaborations also need to be considered (particularly power relations, commitment, interpersonal relationships and trust), particularly as these arrangements impact on the quality and effectiveness of the entertainment-education program. Third, the impact of the entertainment-education program and the activities of the collaboration should be evaluated so that key lessons can be learnt. I suggest that evaluation practice needs to change so that it is collective- across collaboration members and community stakeholders - so that the impact of these activities can be captured. This would require assessing not just the impact of the entertainment-education program on adolescents – as in the case studies - but also recognising the broader and arguably more sustainable impact of the collaborations activities on the community. A number of best practice guidelines are presented.