Keywords

With all due respect, Mr. Vice President, the cost of doing nothing could be even higher. Our climate is fragile.

The Day After Tomorrow was a fictional dystopian American blockbuster movie released in 2004 that warned of the dangers of climate change. Combining cinematic elements, such as the dramatic dialogue spoken by the main character Jack Hall, alongside award-winning visual effects, the film takes viewers through a journey where they are both entertained and prompted to consider their own actions and the future of our planet (Leiserowitz, 2004). Stories like these have been used for millennia to impart wisdom and encourage actions among people through oral traditions, written texts, and traditional and new media (Riley et al., 2017a, b). Entertainment-education (EE) is the term used to describe the specific communication strategy whereby educational messages are purposely integrated into entertainment platforms to influence knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, and social norms (Singhal & Rogers, 1999, 2002, 2004). EE has been applied in countries around the world on a host of programmatic topics, including health, education, gender, water, and sanitation, and—most recently—climate change (Sood et al., 2017).

Climate change is a broad term to describe shifts in climate patterns over a period of time. These shifts may be natural. However, since the 1800s, human activities primarily due to burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and gas have been the main driver of climate change. Global warming, or a rise in temperatures, is one aspect of climate change, as are changing weather patterns with more extreme weather events, rising sea waters, increasing water scarcity, and shifts in wind patterns, among others. Climate change is at the forefront of the global agenda and is reflected in documents such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC; United Nations, 2020) and the Sustainable Development Goals (United Nations, n.d.). As a planetary issue, addressing climate change requires collaboration and coordination across all levels of the social–ecological model, from an individual change in knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors, to pressure on governments to enact climate-friendly policies. Despite political debate on the topic, there is widespread agreement among the scientific community that climate change is an urgent issue that transcends geopolitical boundaries. Communicating climate science messages in ways that people can relate to and feel spurred to act in their everyday lives requires creative, tailored, and evidence-based solutions. Social and behavioral change communication, which is the strategic use of communication to promote changes in individual knowledge, attitudes, norms, beliefs, and behaviors, interpersonal communication, as well as community-level action, is one approach.

In this chapter, we give a brief history and overview of EE as a theory-driven, evidence-based, social and behavioral change communication approach for climate change. We situate EE under a larger umbrella of storytelling or narrative approaches (we use the terms narrative and storytelling interchangeably). We conducted a formal search of the peer-reviewed literature on EE and climate change over the past 20 years. We also informally contacted colleagues working in this space to catalog evidence-based EE programs addressing climate change from around the world. We present our programmatic findings and conclude with implications for EE theory, practice, and future research and evaluation on this pressing global issue.

Overview of Entertainment-Education

While storytelling for change has existed throughout human history (Fisher, 1985), a specific strategy called entertainment-education emerged in the mid-twentieth century. Miguel Sabido, a telenovela producer for the Mexican media company Televisa, and other colleagues initiated its formal study by observing real-world outcomes of popular mass media programs. For example, viewers of the Peruvian telenovela Simplemente María (Simply Maria), one of the most popular telenovelas ever broadcast in Latin America, purchased sewing machines en masse after watching their beloved protagonist do the same (Singhal et al., 1995). Sabido originally called this approach “entertainment with proven social benefit” (Sabido, 2004, p. 61), which was later adapted into the term “entertainment-education.”

Put simply, EE embeds didactic information into entertainment formats. Although there are differing views on what is considered “educational” and who determines the content of EE campaigns (Dutta, 2006), traditional EE programs include a cast of relatable positive, negative, and transitional characters who evolve throughout storylines that can last months, and even years (Ryerson, 1994). EE has evolved over time from long-running soap opera-type programs focused on individual change and dealing mostly with sexual and reproductive health to a variety of issues and media representing changing global priorities, funders, and technology and is now considered an established approach to research and scholarship (Storey & Sood, 2013). This century has seen a rapid rise in the popularity of storytelling on web-based platforms. EE theory and research have adapted to the possibilities of immersive environments created by digital technologies. An updated definition of EE by Wang and Singhal (2021) states, “EE is a social and behavioral change communication (SBCC) strategy that leverages the power of storytelling in entertainment and wisdom from theories in different disciplines—with deliberate intention and collaborative efforts throughout the process of content production, program implementation, monitoring, and evaluation—to address critical issues in the real world and create enabling conditions for desirable and sustainable change across micro-, meso-, and macro-levels” (Wang & Singhal, 2021, p. 227).

Since its formal inception, EE has covered a wide range of educational topics. A review we conducted of the literature from 2005 to 2016 found that HIV/AIDS and sexual and reproductive health were the most common topics covered in EE (Sood et al., 2017). The field of EE has evolved over time, from soap opera-type programs focused on individual change based on the tenets of social cognitive theory and dealing mostly with sexual and reproductive health, to a variety of issues representing changing global priorities and funders (Storey & Sood, 2013).

EE is one type of narrative approach, among a suite of narrative approaches, for climate change communication (Fig. 1). Closely related narrative approaches are covered in other chapters in this text and elsewhere. For this chapter, we focus on EE for climate communication, also referred to as climate change communication (Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, 2020), the formal sub-discipline of environmental and science communication (Jickling & Wals, 2008). We acknowledge an intersection of several disciplines at each level of our figure, which includes environmental education, climate education, public health education, and social and behavioral change communication. Our aim here is not to exhaustively list the various intersections of fields and viewpoints that undergird this work but to highlight the EE strategy as a multi-disciplinary approach to communicating climate change.

Fig. 1
An illustration of 3 concentric circles. The outer circle denotes climate change communication. The center circle denotes storytelling or narrative approaches. The innermost circle denotes E E, one storytelling or narrative approach.

Umbrella of climate change communication approaches

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Theoretical Roots of Entertainment-Education

Since its inception, EE has been designed, implemented, and evaluated as a communication strategy using a rich theoretical foundation with theories spanning several social science disciplines. Full reviews of EE theory exist elsewhere but in short: the theories that have been used to understand the mechanisms of how and why EE engenders change encompass each level of the social ecological model (Fig. 2). Individual-level theories are often used in EE to understand individual knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors that campaign designers hope will be impacted by an EE program. For example, the theory of planned behavior says that individual behavior is shaped by a combination of attitudes and intention to change (Ajzen, 1991) and, thus, has often been used to explain the effects of EE programs on those individual-level indicators.

Fig. 2
An illustration of 4 concentric circles. The outermost circle represents policy, followed by the community or organization in the next inner circle, then the interpersonal level in the third inner circle, and finally, the individual at the innermost circle.

Social ecological model

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Previous research has shown that the most commonly used theory to understand the mechanisms of how and why EE engenders change is Albert Bandura’s social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1977), which states that people learn behavior from their environment and through watching others, i.e., observational learning. Bandura’s work was instrumental in developing the EE approach and characters that role model behavior for audiences (Bandura, 2004). Recent research has focused on the influence of EE via theories of social norms (Riley et al., 2020), the unwritten rules that guide human behavior (WHO, 2010). Through theories, such as diffusion of innovations (Rogers, 2003) and bounded normative influence (Kincaid, 2004), EE characters role model and promote new norms for audiences and demonstrate the benefits and sanctions, or rewards and punishments, of following or not following social norms. For example, the Rwandan EE program Umurage Urukwiye (Rwanda’s Brighter Future) role modeled a community where planting trees to protect the environment became normal. This 312-episode EE radio drama aired from July 2007 to August 2009, focused on the impacts of environmental degradation and promoted wildlife habitat preservation. The drama mirrored an existing government-driven reforestation program by incorporating characters planting tree seedlings to save their farmlands. An independent evaluation of Umurage Urukwiye found that 11% of those buying tree seedlings during the broadcast period had been motivated to do so by listening to the show (Barker et al., 2013).

Other theories from communication seek to understand the underlying mechanisms supporting stories and storytelling in EE. These include the extended-elaboration likelihood model (Slater & Rouner, 2002), narrative transportation (Green & Brock, 2000), and narrative engagement (Busselle & Bilandzic, 2009), as well as theories that describe audience members’ perceived relationship with characters in EE, including parasocial interaction (Papa et al., 2000), audience involvement (Sood, 2002), and identification (Cohen, 2001). Moyer-Gusé’s (2008) entertainment overcoming resistance model takes several of these concepts into account. For example, Punta Fuego (Fire Point) in Belize demonstrated the benefits of sustainable fishing to mitigate the local impact of climate change on personal livelihoods and included a radio drama serial, call-in shows, theatre productions, and community mobilization, in an effort to educate local fishing communities on the environment, overfishing, and their own rights and responsibilities. Quantitative evaluation results showed significant improvements in knowledge regarding fishery regulations and the benefits of marine protection areas. Fishermen explained their positive response to the show because it was about them and spoke to them about issues that they considered important (Cheung et al., 2018).

A rich body of evidence through different methodological approaches including randomized control trials, mixed methods, and cost-effectiveness analysis, has demonstrated that EE is effective at a relatively low cost. For example, the Indian EE television program Jasoos Vijay (Detective Vijay) costs just $2.49 per person who changes their behavior (started using condoms) as a result of exposure (Sood & Nambiar, 2006). A literature review of 126 published EE research programs found that 18.3% of studies reported high levels of effective behavioral and social changes, and 61.1% reported intermediate effectiveness of these outcomes (Sood et al., 2017). While previous EE research has tended to focus on health topics related to sexual and reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, and family planning, there is a burgeoning interest in applying EE to climate issues as evidenced by recent events including a 2018 EE conference at Stanford University and a panel at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, sponsored by the National Resources Defense Council. Cross traditions, EE is standing on firm theoretical ground to understand the effects of three different types of present-day EE.

Types of Present-Day Entertainment-Education

EE began as a long-running communication strategy. Sabido utilized the telenovela format, popular across Latin America, for his early EE programs on Televisa (Singhal et al., 1993). These programs included a cast of positive characters, negative characters, and transitional characters who evolve throughout storylines that can last months and even years (Ryerson, 1994). The Indian television show Hum Log (We People) was one of the earliest replications of Sabido’s methodology, and utilizing this long format ran for 154 episodes in 1984. As the EE strategy spread around the world, the long-running format was copied and adapted to local context and emerging media. This first type of EE is typically programs with several dozen episodes or more of a serial drama or soap opera on television or radio specifically designed from inception with behavioral and/or social change objectives. Funders of these efforts often include international aid organizations. An example using the Sabido methodology from the climate literature comes from India. Yeh Kahan Aa Gate Hum (Where Have We Arrived?) was a 52-episode radio serial in 1998 that covered issues across environmental domains including air, water, deforestation, and other topics. A popular actress provided 30- to 60-s epilogues about environmental behaviors covered in each episode (Singhal et al., 2000a, b).

A second branch of EE veers away from the original EE format and is called social impact entertainment by some media professionals (UCLA, 2019). While this is an evolving space, these efforts involve strategically incorporating educational messages into existing media and entertainment. Producers and media professionals may create successful EE with or without any knowledge of the global history and research supporting EE. This branch of EE includes a wide range of genres addressing climate change. Documentary and nonfiction film examples include An Inconvenient Truth, When the Levees Broke, and Before the Flood. A comedy example is the live show Ain’t Your Mama’s Heat Wave, which was made into a feature film. Other genres include television dramas, reality TV, podcasts, and emerging media. These efforts tend to be funded by private funders and nonprofits with a climate, or otherwise aligned, mission (Riley & Borum Chattoo, 2019). Research to understand these efforts is often done post hoc (Dudo et al., 2017) and is researched using similar theories and social science methods as the traditional EE space, such as research conducted on the documentary series Years of Living Dangerously (Bieniek-Tobasco et al., 2019, 2020).

A third type of EE is popular media and entertainment, which was created purely for entertainment purposes. In these examples, climate change is at the heart of the narrative, not necessarily for prosocial purposes but instead to tell an entertaining or informative story. Climate change examples in this category include late-night comedy shows, broadcast and cable news and newspapers (Farnsworth & Lichter, 2012), entertainment and prime-time TV (McComas et al., 2001), and shows on the Internet/YouTube (Shapiro & Park, 2015). As these are not purposely planned efforts with strategic objectives, funders do not include international development organizations or private foundations with climate missions. This is a growing group, and research is emerging on the unanticipated media effects of popular entertainment programs.

Methods

To catalog and describe EE and climate change efforts, we gathered information through three methods: (1) a formal review of the peer-reviewed literature on EE and climate change; (2) a keyword search on the Communication Initiative (CI), a network dedicated to creating a shared knowledge base of communication and media development for social and behavioral changes among local, national, and international communities (Feek, 2019); and (3) informal outreach via emails and conversations with colleagues working in the field of entertainment-education. Our formal literature review and keyword search on the CI network provided a retrospective look at research published between 2000 and the present, while our communication with colleagues presented both retrospective and prospective looks into existing examples, as well as perspectives on future directions and the role of EE in directing climate change understanding and behavior.

Formal Literature Review

We searched three academic databases to review the literature: PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Scopus. To operationalize the field of EE, we used three terms: entertainment education, entertainment-education, and edutainment. To operationalize climate change, we used four terms: climate, climate change, global warming, and environment. We used the and identifier to connect EE and climate change terms. This resulted in 12 separate searches per database, for a total of 36 searches. Searches were limited to English only and between the years 2000 and 2020 or the present. Of the 1509 total search results returned from the three databases, 1487 were removed because they were duplicates and/or not relevant to our topic of interest based on title, leaving 22 articles remaining.

We also performed a search in Google Scholar using the same combinations of operational search terms and limitations (English only articles between 2000 and 2020). For the Google Scholar searches, we searched for relevant articles within the top 300 results, as proposed by Haddaway et al. (2015). We prioritized peer-reviewed, published journal articles in the literature review that evaluated a program related to climate change and EE. We performed the same identification and title screening steps outlined above, which resulted in 134 shortlisted articles.

Using RefWorks, we then screened the abstracts of the 156 articles, identifying and removing 8 more duplicates, 10 results that were not original or peer-reviewed research articles, 14 articles that were too broad and unspecific to climate change and EE, 58 articles that were not focused on climate change and EE, and 9 articles that were unavailable from institutional libraries. This left 57 articles to include in our review.

Keyword Search

We next ran a keyword search on the Communication Network (CI) network. The CI network allows people and organizations to share articles, opinions, and media/communication programs for discussion and review (Feek, 2019). This provided another source for potential programs related to EE and climate change. Although these articles do not undergo peer review, many provide links to peer-reviewed articles regarding programs of interest. We used the same operational search terms to conduct a brief search of the CI literature, including the first 100 articles for each of the 12 separate searches. We found 15 programs identified through the CI network for inclusion.

Informal Outreach

Finally, we contacted 83 colleagues informally via email for any examples of work on climate change and EE. The co-authors drafted a list of colleagues from our respective networks, and our emails were also forwarded on to new connections and organizations. We received 70 responses, of which 58 offered information in the form of project or program details, published journal articles (31 additional articles), or referrals to other colleagues working on media projects associated with climate change. We conducted 9 online conversations with leaders of flagship EE organizationsFootnote 1 regarding current or past productions of EE that involved a climate change component.

Results

Compiling programs from the literature review, keyword search, and colleague conversations, we identified 87 different programs involving some component of climate change and some component of entertainment-education. In terms of locations of entertainment programs addressing climate change, the United States was most widely represented, with 37 efforts. Other countries that reported multiple projects include Nigeria and India. This is not surprising given the size and scope of the entertainment industry in both countries. Radio (n = 22) and TV (n = 27) emerged as the most commonly reported medium for climate change programs included in our search. A relatively smaller number of programs indicated a multi-channel focus, leveraging transmedia options for addressing climate change. Results around the timing of the programs varied. A handful of popular entertainment examples were from the late 1990s. For example, Yeh Kahan Aa Gate Hum (Where Have We Arrived?) covered themes of air/water/noise pollution, deforestation, solid waste disposal, and organic farming (Singhal et al., 2000a, b). Anecdotally, there appears to be a growing interest in climate change and EE. In our sample, 22 programs began in the decade spanning 2000–2010 and 51 from 2010–2020.

In the course of analyzing the programs, it became clear that all branches of EE required intentional storytelling and close collaboration among different partners. All the examples of traditional EE messaging through long-running narratives that are built around a goal of promoting changes in knowledge, attitudes, behavior, and/or social norms surrounding climate change came from the Global South. The majority of the examples of existing television or media incorporating an EE narrative related to climate change to reach broad audiences that already may watch the program came from the United States. As a whole, it appears that while climate change communication using EE remains relatively uncommon around the world, there are unique media industries and related reasons driving this work in specific geographical areas.

Climate Change and EE in the Global North

Climate change communication in the Global North, specifically in the USA and UK, can be categorized into three discrete strategies. These include the purposeful inclusion of climate change storylines within popular entertainment, late-night political comedy, and unplanned climate change messaging within popular entertainment. Table 1 summarizes these findings.

Table 1 Entertainment-education and climate change programs
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Purposeful Climate Change Storylines Within Popular Entertainment

In the domestic US market, Hollywood Health and Society (HH&S) is an industry leader that has worked for many years with prime-time drama and comedy shows to incorporate messages into popular entertainment. Of specific note is HH&S’ Climate Change Initiative, which provides expert opinions, top scientists, and researchers in education, government, and health care, as well as environmentalists and activists, as tools for the television and film industry. Film screenings are often followed by Q&As with filmmakers and materials like tip sheets on environmental health issues. The Climate Change Initiative has devoted special editions of their HH&S newsletter featuring climate stories, reports, and studies on global warming (HH&S, 2020). Some specific EE and climate change examples from HH&S include:

  • Cameo appearances on NBC’s 30 Rock (2006–2013) by Al Gore, who has championed for changes in climate change policy for decades (see research by Moyer-Gusé et al., 2019)

  • A 2014 episode of ABC’s Modern Family (Season 5, Episode 12, “Under Pressure”), where the character Asher, played by actor Jesse Eisenberg, is portrayed as a climate crusader, who provides cues to action to address climate change, specifically associated with potable water

  • Episodes of Madam Secretary, a popular drama on CBS, including Season 1, Episode 17 (2015), where one of the storylines involved the prevention of an ecological disaster in the Amazon, and Season 5, Episode 16, “The New Normal” (2019), which focused on the global impact of climate change, as illustrated by changing weather patterns and extreme weather events

Late-Night Political Comedy

The second strategy of climate change communication we found in the Global North included late-night political comedy television, which engages in satirizing doubts about global warming. Research conducted by Brewer and McKnight (2015) found that satirical television news (specifically The Daily Show, hosted by Jon Stewart) shaped public opinion about climate change, regardless of the political and ideological leanings of viewers. In May 2019, based on a U.N. report that predicted that lasting climate change is coming to the planet as soon as 2040 (United Nations, n.d.-a, n.d.-b), Last Week Tonight host John Oliver teamed up with Bill Nye the Science Guy (whose media effects scholars credit with making science enjoyable for children) Bryant et al., 2012). Oliver and Nye encouraged viewers to take unprecedented steps to halt climate change.

Climate Change Messaging Within Popular Entertainment

The third set of entertainment programs in the Global North that incorporate climate change themes is somewhat serendipitous. One example of this accidental inclusion of climate change is Tom Perrotta’s novel The Leftovers. According to the author, this novel was not meant to be an allegory for climate change, but when the book was converted to an HBO TV show, some critics connected it to climate change, a view the author now endorses.

Journalists and media bloggers commenting on popular TV have noted that streaming shows like Black Mirror have included specific episodes that deal with climate change as part of interesting narratives. For example, the first and last episodes of Season 5. In Episode I, “Nosedive,” the widespread availability of clean energy is juxtaposed with inequality in a totalitarian society. And the last episode, “Hated in the Nation,” imagines a world where bees have gone extinct bringing the U.K. to the brink of an ecological and food crisis.

John Mitchell, an editor and writer with the Washington, D.C.-based Climate Reality Project, in a blog from Spring 2019, specifically sought to examine major TV shows addressing climate change and isolated just three: Game of Thrones, a National Geographic docu-series called Life Below Zero, and the Norwegian political thriller Occupied (Climate Reality Project, 2019). Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin claimed the climate crisis was a great parallel to the threat of “winter is coming” in the fictional world of Westeros. Life Below Zero was a popular National Geographic docu-series that followed the life of Alaskans who found their lives impacted by the melting permafrost and warmer temperatures. Occupied was a critically acclaimed Norwegian political thriller, available on Netflix, that explores a future world where environmentally friendly politicians come to power in Norway, but their progressive actions around climate change result in Norward being held hostage by Russian and E.U. oil interests.

As a whole, we found a need for more planned climate change communication in the United States. However, our review shows that this observation is not unique to the United States. A review of over 100,000 distinct programs from 40 channels in the U.K. conducted by the British Academy of Film and Television Awards (BAFTA) in 2019 and revealed that between 2017 and 2018, the term climate change was rarely mentioned. Summarizing their conclusions from this report, BAFTA chair Pippa Harris said, “Reducing our impact is a given, but our real opportunity lies in the programs we make, and in our ability to use powerful human stories to connect audiences with the world around them” (BAFTA, 2019, p. 8).

While considering the relative dearth of climate change communication in popular media in the North, we highlight one notable exception: the BBC and HBO show Years and Years, a 6-part series, that imagines a future in which changes in climate are occurring. The drama imagines a world where the North Pole has entirely melted, bananas no longer exist, and 80 days of relentless rainfall hits. Moreover, we see an upward trend in the inclusion of climate change communication in popular television: for example, Apple TV’s dramatic adaptation of Nathaniel Rich’s nonfiction book Losing Earth, which narrates the attempt to stop climate change in the 1980s (Rich, 2018).

Climate Change and EE in the Global South

The trend with entertainment-education for climate change in the Global South is somewhat different. These efforts are led by organizations with long histories of working in low- and middle-income countries on climate change communication, such as PCI Media (Cheung et al., 2018), Population Media Center (Barker et al., 2013), BBC Media Action (Whitehead, 2017), and the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, 2020). The main impetus driving their decision to implement these global climate change-focused EE projects appeared to be related to donor interest in increasing audience participation in climate adaptation and mitigation efforts on the ground, combined with the salience of the issues, as evidenced by reliance on robust formative research. Some 25 examples we elicited are summarized in the second half of Table 1.

A majority of these shows tended to situate the narrative within the lived experiences of their audiences and focus on climate adaptation within broader international development strategies. In these shows, notably Bienvenida Salud (Welcome Health) in the Peruvian Amazon and Punta Fuego (Fire Point) in Belize (Cheung et al., 2018), climate issues are real and happening now, which makes it easier for programmers to write a consistent and coherent human story, than if climate change is treated as an abstract phenomenon. At the same time, Ek Zindagi Aisi Bhi (A Life We Aspire For), a radio program in Uttar Pradesh, India, covered the topic of air pollution, a major environmental issue as a main theme in its narrative, while also including climate mitigation strategies such as the use of e-rickshaws and solar panels. In addition, they inspired villagers to demand policy changes (Sachdev, 2018; The Change Designers, 2017). The Shamba Chef program in Kenya was designed with safer cooking methods and environmental issues at the forefront (Evans et al., 2020).

CrossCutting Findings

Across both the Global North and South, we found some interesting trends among the programs. These are summarized below under findings related to documentary storytelling, children’s programming, and future EE efforts for climate change.

Documentaries

Across both the Global North and South, we identified 13 documentaries dealing with climate change. While documentaries are not traditionally considered to be entertainment-education, given that a documentary is a movie or a television or radio program that provides a factual record or report (Borum Chattoo, 2020) and they consist of sub-genres such as docu-dramas and docu-comedies, these were included in our review and are marked with a hashtag (#) in Table 1. Some examples of documentaries include:

  • The docu-comedy show and film Ain’t Your Mama’s Heat Wave, a collaboration between the Center for Media & Social Impact at American University and Hip Hop Caucus, a racial justice group that works on climate change awareness and mobilization for marginalized communities in the United States

  • Chasing Ice, Jeff Orlowski’s 2012 documentary on Arctic glaciers and global warming

  • An Inconvenient Truth and its sequel Truth to Power (2017), both of which are about former United States Vice President Albert A. Gore Jr.’s continuing mission to battle climate change

  • 8 Billion Angels, a feature film about overpopulation and sustainability

A large proportion of documentaries dealing with climate change were from Western Europe and the United States. Two notable exceptions include a documentary from Kenya Thank You for the Rain (2017), which followed the journey of a Kenyan farmer as he transitions into becoming a climate change activist; and one from Tanzania, The World Has Malaria, a 20-min documentary-drama to explain causes of climate change and present adaptation options (Communication Initiative, 2011).

Children’s Programming

Despite younger audiences’ interest in environmentalism and climate narratives, evidence of climate change in children’s programming is limited. We indicate our findings in Table 1 with the + symbol. One example from our search is Doc McStuffins, a children’s TV show that made a passing reference to climate change in an episode titled “The Big Storm.” A review of 25 children’s programs, however, found that only four had an episode with climate change content (Poirier, 2019). At the same time, there were several compelling global projects reported engaging children though cartoons, comics, books, and board games. Wu and Lee (2015) review climate change games for children’s entertainment including a variety of emerging formats including online, computer, and mobile games.

Depiction of anxiety associated with climate change or eco-anxiety was a phenomenon we found increasingly described. The American Psychological Association warns that children can be overwhelmed by climate change implications (Whitmore-Williams et al., 2017). In a 2015 review of the literature on young people and climate change, Corner et al. report that climate change is a major cause of concern and, in some cases, is “associated with feelings of anxiety, stress and despair” (p. 525). For example, a controversial season 4 episode of ABC’s family sitcom, Black-ish “Please Baby Please” includes climate change as a core issue confronting the world. Set during a thunderstorm the two preteen characters in the show confess to their dad that they’re scared by the storm, but not because they fear thunder but because the extreme weather reminds them of how terrified they are of climate change, while being resigned to cleaning up the messes of older generations. Another example comes from the HBO show Big Little Lies, where a child is visibly distressed and hides in a closet due to her concern that the planet is doomed. Millennials and Gen Z have forced conversations about eco-anxiety into the mainstream. According to the Pew Research Center (Funk & Hefferon, 2019), this is the demographic most likely to understand the link between human activity and climate change. We found little evidence in the literature of EE focused on children and youth, with a few exceptions, most notably a national high school assembly program that was based on EE principles and presented at 779 schools across the United States (Flora et al., 2014).

Future Implementation Plans

Throughout our informal conversations, colleagues mentioned both domestic and international EE programs that were in the planning phases. While many of these details are “under wraps” as of this writing, suffice it to say, that we learned about more than a few programs in proposal, pre-production, and/or production phases. One of these is the program proposed by Coren and Safer (2020) that outlines a plan for a long-running EE program for climate change in the United States. As of this writing, there has yet to be such a long-running EE program or a transmedia effort on this topic in the Global North.

Discussion

Implications for Theory

EE was initially conceptualized by Sabido and other pioneers as a long-running narrative strategy for behavioral and social changes. While some practitioners, mostly in the Global South, continue to apply a long-running EE approach over many episodes and interwoven stories, we found growing examples of EE formats that include documentary storytelling, social impact storytelling, and short-form storytelling using emerging and new media. A re-examination of theory is needed to understand if and how these newer EE adaptations engender change. EE today is much more complex than the model depicted in early programs, and climate change is a topic that requires more than simple awareness-raising campaigns. People around the world know that the climate is changing and can see it through their own eyes, through extreme weather events, such as hurricanes, floods, and fires, and the impact of external events on their families, communities, livelihoods, and homes. The protection motivation theory proposes that individuals rely on two factors to make decisions and change their behavior. These include threat appraisal and coping appraisal (Prentice-Dunn & Rogers, 1986). Threat appraisal assesses perceived severity and perceived susceptibility to a situation, for example, climate change, while coping appraisal is how one responds to the situation through both perceived response efficacy and self-efficacy, which are expectations that carrying out specific recommended actions will remove the threat combined with the confidence to execute the recommended courses of action successfully. While focusing on storylines depicting fear about an uncertain future (threat efficacy), EE narratives could rely on coping appraisal to promote action.

Newer models, such as the social–ecological model, provide an updated understanding of how people act, and how to spur people to act, by considering the interactive influences of families, communities, and society as a whole. Research indicates that EE is most effective when it is designed to address multiple levels of the social–ecological model, for example, communication initiatives that include complementary activities such as call-in shows to incite dialogue and discussion, community events to promote behaviors, and support for policies and initiatives to increase the uptake of services and supplies raised in EE stories. Recent research by Gesser-Edelsburg et al. (2021) based on studying childhood injuries among the Bedouin in Israel has proposed a hybrid model incorporating positive deviance and community-based participatory research with entertainment-education to engender social change.

EE has a long history of changing community social norms and applying pressure on governments to take action around complex and difficult topics, from child marriage to gender-based violence (Bouman et al., 2016; Usdin et al., 2005). While, in this review, we found the evidence based on EE and climate change to be relatively small, EE is theoretically poised to shift norms on climate change as well. Most of the scholarship on EE and social norms on other topics has been from long-running programs (Riley et al., 2020). For example, we previously found social norms change on maternal and child health topics as a result of exposure to Kyunki … Jeena Issi Ka Naam Hai (Because… That’s What Life Is), a long-running EE TV program in India, but that show ran for over 500 episodes (Riley et al., 2017a, b). Riley et al. (2021) report on four different EE case studies that have successfully promoted social change across several topics. As new and shorter EE programs seek to address social norms and climate change, theory indicates that a more direct connection is required. As one example, social sanctions are the punishments for not following social norms, such as social exclusion that may be experienced if one does not have their daughter married by a certain age (Bouman et al., 2016). EE programs working in climate change must thoughtfully consider how to demonstrate social sanctions in stories to encourage, and not discourage, the adoption of new and critical mitigation and adaptation norms.

Theories related to storytelling are additionally useful for understanding this topic. Audiences need to identify and relate with characters in EE stories. As theory indicates EE is effective when characters are designed with the audience in mind, climate characters should not be annoying or preachy but rather relatable and admirable. Our review found several examples of EE programs with characters designed with formative research, such as the characters in the Mozambican EE program Bravos de Zambeze (Zambezi Braves), on natural disasters and climate change. We recommended a continued focus on connecting the theoretical underpinnings of characters and storytelling in future EE efforts for climate change.

Implications for Practice

Our review of past and current EE efforts to address climate change yielded some critical implications for practice. A central tenet for EE is that the entertainment aspect has to be front and center. Audiences will get turned off by programming that appears preachy. Another key aspect that came to the fore in the Global North was the relatively minor impact climate change has had on individual everyday lives. This lack of immediate and tangible impacts leads audiences to the conclusion that climate change is a long-term issue and not a matter of urgent concern. Experimental research by Chu and Yang (2020) reports that when communicating distant and abstract risks of climate change, highlighting their long-term disastrous impacts may be more effective in motivating action. In contrast, when communicating impending and concrete risks of climate change, stressing coping appraisal might have stronger potential. It is important therefore to start focusing on the tangible impacts of climate change on people’s everyday lives.

In line with this implication is the need for climate change messaging to highlight the rewards associated with taking action and be relevant and actionable in both the short and long term. Climate change messages should be framed in a way that speaks to the values, interests, and experiences of youth. Almost all EE tackling climate change falls within the realm of cli-fi (Baden & Brown, 2024), which translates into narratives of a dystopian future arising from failure to address climate change. These narratives, while compelling, may not be entirely relevant for several reasons. First, they display a post-disaster world that human beings are helpless to change and cannot do anything about. Second, this type of narrative does not engender self-efficacy by making audiences feel confident in their ability to take positive actions that help address a problem. Finally, these narrativea do not provide audiences with concrete cues to action, that is small measurable steps that they can take to address this broad and overwhelming issue. It is important to reduce eco-anxiety by focusing on science-based tangible, actionable, and concrete cues to action. This is where the Sabido methodology of transitional characters who change their behaviors during the course of an EE narrative is critical. For example: to address climate change specifically what can individuals do, how these actions impact their livelihood, and what are the different actions that people can take.

Another programmatic implication is that the language used to address climate change needs to be consistent and positive. In particular, communication with children needs to have a positive tone. A lack of positive messages in environmental education about climate change may prevent many young people from engaging on the issue. According to the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, language impacts people’s world views and individuals perceive reality relative to the language they speak (Kay & Kempton, 1984). The term climate change is politically charged, and the complexity of climate change jargon and information can be a barrier to learning and engagement. This is why we used four terms—climate, climate change, global warming, and environment—for our formal literature review. A 2014 Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication survey found that global warming drew out more emotional engagement and support for action than climate change (Leiserowitz et al., 2014). While scientists prefer the term climate change, activists talk in terms of a climate crisis. The need for communication with children to have a positive tone is well-established in environmental education. A lack of positive messages about climate change in the media may prevent many young people from engaging on the issue. EE implementers have used markers as potential triggers for conversation. Markers are “distinctive and identifiable message elements” that serve as potential triggers for conversation (Singhal & Rogers, 2002, p. 131). The proactive inclusion of markers in EE programs is challenging. It needs to meet four criteria: markers have to be unique, attractive, attuned to the intended audiences, and fit organically into an EE narrative (Bouman, 2021).

A final programmatic implication is about linking climate change with other development issues. EE has been used successfully to address health issues, specifically around sexual and reproductive, as well as maternal and child health. Several EE programs from the Global North rely on this technique by emphasizing climate change as one of the many issues facing the world. For example, the Black-ish episode mentioned above added climate change among other cross-generational concerns such as the rise in white supremacy and the Black Lives Matter movement. In the Global South, narrative programs such as Ek Zindagi Aisi Bhi (A Life We Aspire For) have incorporated environmental concerns within a broader EE narrative (Coren & Wang, 2024). Instead of tackling climate change head-on, there may be a way for EE to explore the link between population growth and climate change. Such thematic intersectionality will allow for exploring climate change within the context of population growth, food systems, agricultural issues, migration, and the overall health and well-being of society.

Implications for Research and Evaluation

In a 2014 journal article titled, “Entertainment-education: storytelling for the greater, greener good,” the authors highlighted the role of EE in sustainability and climate change goals and called for more research in this area (Reinermann et al., 2014). A descriptive review of our data suggests a possible uptick in EE and climate change programs in the years since this call, and our findings lead us to recommend several new areas of focus for future research. Notably, as EE as a strategy continues to proliferate across the globe, it is important to consider who will pay for research and evaluation. EE projects are traditionally funded by a variety of organizations including private foundations, the United Nations (U.N)., government agencies, and NGOs with interests across development issues. EE programs focused on climate change may bring new funders to the table, but research and evaluation to determine if and how initiatives work will remain crucial for the future of the strategy.

Formative Evaluation

Our findings in this chapter highlight the pivotal role of formative research for EE programs. Formative work determines audience needs and format choices. With a topic as complex as climate change, one solution will not fit all, and planned research helps to tailor efforts for the intended audience. At the same time, an understanding is needed that media projects in the Global North are developed differently than in the Global South. Traditionally, in the Global South, EE programs are planned after projects are funded over the course of several months and years with research and field work guiding and shaping the programs. This is not possible in Hollywood, for instance, where shows are piloted and only funded once a series or project is ordered by a network or studio. The tip sheets, Q&A’s, and reports produced by Hollywood, Health & Society appear to be a nice bridge to connect storytellers and experts working in a Western model. More work is needed, however, to help shape climate change projects regardless of geography to be as impactful as possible.

Process Evaluation

Process evaluation, or monitoring, answers the question, Is the EE program being implemented as planned? Monitoring happens while a program is in progress to determine fidelity, reach, and recruitment. In other words: Is the program airing when it is supposed to air? Are people tuning in? Do they like the program? How might the program course correct, if needed, to stay on track and increase listenership/viewership? We found few examples of process evaluation in this review but think this neglected area of research remains necessary. Without process evaluation, an EE program could air an entire season of a show only to realize at the end that adjusting midcourse could have greatly improved the outcomes. To urgently address climate change, programs cannot waste time and resources and, instead, should set aside funds for process evaluation to be conducted along the way.

Impact Evaluation

This review found a small mix of diverse EE programs delivered on television, radio, film, and social media; designed using fiction and nonfiction approaches; applied drama and comedy; and produced for children and adults alike. Across these programs, we call attention to the importance of impact, or outcome, evaluation to determine whether these initiatives met their climate change goals and objectives. Paramount here is listener/viewership. Without an audience, researchers cannot attribute change to the program. We found several examples in our search of EE programs that struggled to keep audiences or lacked large enough sample sizes to make claims about change over time. Future efforts will likely include more transmedia approaches (Wang & Singhal, 2016) and, thus, will require researchers to think about attribution differently. Previous EE work has used markers (outlined earlier) to make claims about attribution. For example, pots and pans were used in episodes of the South African program Soul City to alert neighbors of domestic violence. Evaluation questions used audiences’ answers to questions about the pots and pans as proxies for whether they had seen or heard about the program. In short, the markers bolstered the researchers’ ability to make claims that it was, in fact, the EE program that shifted the audience’s knowledge or behavior and not another, or competing, domestic violence prevention program. As EE programs shift formats and move online, researchers should work together with storytellers to plan markers in advance to make attribution claims in evaluation. These may include GIFs, sound bits, graphics, and other digital media (Lutkenhaus et al., 2019). Finally, we encourage the measurement of indicators across recent theorizing including the social–ecological model, such as knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, and social norms, using methods supported by the peer-reviewed literature (Riley et al., 2021).

Conclusion

This review indicated that while there is a current need for more attention, entertainment-education may be a promising vehicle for climate change communication. Climate change transcends geopolitical boundaries and impacts everyone around the globe. EE can place the issue of climate change in an entertaining and informal context while reaching many people simultaneously. Applying best practices from the entertainment industry, in combination with a growing theoretical understanding of how to communicate climate change with audiences, can foster compelling communications that help audiences understand what climate change is, encourage them to share their questions and concerns, and leave them feeling empowered and hopeful about the future. It is our perspective that there is a place for all types of storytelling or narrative approaches to climate change, and all are needed at this critical juncture for our planet. Such a future requires a multidisciplinary set of change-makers with different skills, including academics, scriptwriters, producers, directors, actors, and climate activists, working together to create meaningful and relevant EE programs for climate change based on theory and best practices.