Field Experiments Show That Narrative Dramas Shape Audiences’ Policy Priorities

• In Event: Public Opinion and Experimental Methods in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

Most studies of TV and radio dramas in low- and middle-income countries focus on the extent to which they change audiences’ views about social issues such as gender-based violence, HIV prevention, or environmental protection. Only recently have randomized evaluations considered the extent to which these dramas change the importance that audiences assign to these issues, turning them into salient policy concerns. Pulling together results from five randomized trials in East Africa, the present paper shows that dramas on a range of topics tend to change (1) what audiences rank as the most important local problem and (2) how they vote in mock elections featuring candidates who stress different policy agendas. Although the effects of exposure subside over time, our pooled analysis of this collection of experiments shows that effects remain apparent months later. We conclude by discussing the important agenda-setting role of narrative entertainment.

Authors

• Donald P. Green, Columbia University

• Dylan Groves, Columbia University

• Beatrice Montano, Columbia University

• Bardia Rahmani, Harvard University