Abstract
This project aimed to explore the perspectives of entertainment industry and health communication practitioners in the United States on creating health storylines in entertainment programming. These dual perspectives are usually not studied in tandem but together offer insights into the creation of impactful health-related narratives. In-depth interviews were conducted with entertainment industry and health professionals ( N = 6) who are experienced in creating health storylines. Questions aimed to illuminate how practitioners define ‘success’ of a health storyline, what they perceive as key elements for impactful health storylines, how key story elements are created and the nature of collaboration between the entertainment industry and public health. Grounded theory analysis identified three core themes for the successful combination of narrative entertainment and health: choosing teams with complementary strengths (e.g., leveraging professional collaboration and trust), knowing your audience (e.g., conducting formative research to understand who the story is intended for and why) and integrating health content in authentic ways (e.g., telling dramatic stories with universal themes, without creating from the intent of relaying health information). Best-practice guidelines for narrative entertainment to communicate about health, informed by the core themes and persuasion theory, are offered for narrative development, pre-production, content creation and dissemination.
Highlights
The potential for narrative entertainment to educate and influence viewers presents health communicators with opportunity and challenge
We report the following three axial themes that emerged from grounded theory analysis, as well as the overarching theme encompassing them
We began with the aim of illuminating the perspectives of entertainment industry and health communication practitioners involved in the creation of health narratives
Summary
The potential for narrative entertainment to educate and influence viewers presents health communicators with opportunity and challenge. Academic research on health-related narrative communication (e.g., De Graaf et al, 2016; Green & Fitzgerald, 2017; Kreuter et al, 2007) and entertainment-education (EE; e.g., Igartua & Casanova, 2016; Moyer-Gusé, 2008; Quintero Johnson et al, 2013; Singhal et al, 2006) have identified attributes and mechanisms of narratives that may lead to health-supporting outcomes These academic perspectives are valuable, the perspective of entertainment industry and healthcommunication practitioners on creating such narratives has yet to be fully explored. On the other hand, integrating practitioner expertise with relevant theory would benefit and inform the process of health narrative creation, facilitate the establishment of best practices and enable more effective collaborations among health communication, public health, entertainment and production stakeholders
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