Hollywood, Health & Society - United States

Recognising the impact that entertainment media can have on individual behaviour, the HH&S project offers resources to writers and producers who develop scripts with health storylines and information. The idea is that such personnel might need information to make their scripts - and characters - more realistic and able to communicate accurate health information to audiences. In this context, HH&S experts address questions such as the following:

• What type of life-threatening disease could a character have if she is an African American professional woman in her mid-40s? If it is cancer, what type would it be and what are the first symptoms?
• What would a psychiatrist say to a high school student who threatens to kill himself or someone else? Is he required by law to tell the teen's parents and the police?
• If a patient has advanced-stage colon cancer and has not responded to standard treatment, what would she have to do to get experimental treatment? What would that treatment be?
• If someone thinks eating vegetables and fruits could help prevent cancer, how much does he have to eat? Which vegetables and fruits are best?
• What are the biggest health threats in the Congo? How is health care set up and delivered in a bush setting? What is done for patients with AIDS?

This guidance includes written information - available in printed format and/or online - such as quick facts, case examples, quarterly email health updates, and an expanding list of tipsheets written specifically for writers and producers. For example, tipsheets, which include basic information, case examples, and additional resources, are available on the CDC website and NCI website. The broad range of topics includes sudden infant death syndrome, smallpox, antibiotic resistance, and all cancer topics. Click here for a full list of available tipsheets.

Personal, face-to-face information exchanges, such as briefings and consultations with experts, are another component of this programme. HH&S staff hold meetings with the creators of TV shows and network campaigns, conduct expert briefings for writers, and respond to inquiries for health information. The meetings inform network and show staff about the full range of services that are available to them, including telephone calls for factual information and visits by NCI experts who have national responsibility for cancer and other public health issues. Programme staff can arrange expert briefings for an entire writing staff of a TV show; set up one-on-one conversations between a producer and a health expert to explore storyline possibilities; or identify people who deal with health issues first-hand, on a personal, professional or community level.

Group communication is also a tool. Panel discussions about timely health issues are held at the Writers Guild of America with partners like the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to examine the implications of dramatising critical public health topics in entertainment programming. Health experts talk about issues such as obesity, HIV/AIDS, and nutrition and cancer rates and trends. Entertainment professionals who have covered these topics discuss the challenges and responsibilities they face when bringing them to the screen.

HH&S collaborates with communication researchers and entertainment industry executives to study the content and impact of TV health storylines. Examples of projects include an analysis of national survey data to assess the impact of Spanish-language media on Hispanic audiences and the impact of a Telemundo TV storyline on breast cancer knowledge and screening intentions. Findings are published in professional journals or books, such as Entertainment-Education and Social Change, which includes examples of successful E-E projects and evaluation. Research results are also presented at national conferences; for instance, in May 2003 HH&S convened a group of 26 social scientists from academic, advocacy, and public health organisations for a research conference entitled "Developing a Research Agenda for Entertainment Education and Multicultural Audiences." The specific purpose of the conference was to focus on the effects of E-E on multicultural television audiences.

In order to encourage more accurate portrayals of health topics in TV dramas and comedies, the Lear Center programme works with the CDC to conduct the Sentinel for Health Award. These awards recognise exemplary achievements of daytime dramas (television soap operas) and prime time dramas and comedies that inform, educate, and motivate viewers to make choices for healthier and safer lives. The awards are staged annually at the Writers Guild of America, West for writers and producers of TV shows. For more information on this award, click here.

Health.

According to programme partners, national surveys have shown that daytime and primetime viewers pay attention to the health information in TV shows, learn from it, act on it, and share the information with others. One study of hotline callers who responded to a public service announcement (PSA) during a health storyline suggests similar findings. Furthermore, HH&S claims that, "In surveys conducted by Porter Novelli during 1999 and 2000, about half of regular prime time and daytime drama viewers reported that they learned something about a disease or how to prevent it from a TV show. About one-third of regular viewers said they took some action after hearing about a health issue or disease on a TV show." In addition, the NCI reports that 88% of Americans learn about health issues from television. NCI also claims that "Not only is television an effective outlet, but, in some cases, it speaks directly to the audiences that we most want to reach - those at greatest risk for cancer. In fact, findings in a 1999 Healthstyles Survey indicated that regular viewers of soap operas reported more health concerns than individuals who do not watch soap operas."