Radio serial dramas can measurably shift listener awareness and action on child trafficking

Evidence

Another story line tailored to unique cultural problems addressed the pervasive practice of child trafficking in the West African countries of Mali, Ivory Coast, and Burkina Faso. Child traffickers trick poor parents with large families into giving up some of their children under the pretense that they will receive good care and schooling and will send money home. Instead, the traffickers sell the children for slave labor under inhumane conditions. The traffickers also sell children whose parents have died of AIDS. Some children are sold to the sex trade. The radio serial drama exposed these cruel practices. Listeners became aware of child trafficking, discussed exploitative child labor, and took action against it, more so than did nonlisteners (Population Media Center, 2004). — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2811

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Bandura’s wider social cognitive theory archive and to media-effects-for-behavior-change literature generally.
• SEED: An essay angle: narrative fiction with embedded prosocial modeling out-performs factual messaging for changing behavior in low-literacy settings.