Economic education via consumer advice programmes? Informal learning based on the example of the television help format ‘Out of Debt’

Abstract

Unlike historical and biological topics, economic topics are seldom dealt with in documentations on television. They are to be found in consumer advice programmes or recently in so-called help formats. Advice programmes of this kind which are based on the life story of a family or an individual person have meanwhile become an integral part of all television programmes. They are responding to the need for advice in society, which also includes economic issues and offensively resort to entertainment in order to achieve their goal (section 1). However, it remains unclear what the audience actually learns. Hill poses this question and formulates an ‘idea of learning’ that lies in store for the audience with these formats. With the help of a multistage test design, the television format ‘Out of Debt’ (section 3) shall be examined for a potential learning contribution among adolescent consumers (section 4).