TY - JOUR
T1 - Concerns With Entertainment-Education
T2 - Zombie Pandemic Preparedness and the Unanticipated Promotion of a Weapons Culture
AU - Houghton, Frank
AU - Toms, Jeremy
AU - Meratnia, Ghazal
AU - Loney, Krista
AU - Hopkins, Edward
AU - Del Monte, Katie
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016, © 2016 Society for Public Health Education.
PY - 2017/8/1
Y1 - 2017/8/1
N2 - Entertainment-education has proved to be an engaging medium through which to explore health and social issues in populations. Given the popularity of the zombie theme in popular culture it is no surprise therefore that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention adopted this theme in an effort to engage youth and young adults in emergency preparedness. However, an earlier observational study involving elementary school children based on this premise raised concerns that it may have unexpectedly promoted a focus on firearms. A randomized control study involving 89 children (average age 10.4 years) was therefore conducted to explore this possibility in more depth. One group was exposed to a natural disaster scenario, while the other group was exposed to the zombie pandemic theme. When subsequently asked to prepare emergency kit lists, participants in the zombie themed scenario were 15.84 times as likely to include firearms in their lists compared with participants who were exposed to the natural disaster scenario. Although the sample size in this study was small, it is suggested that future interventions using entertainment-education need to explore all aspects of the messages implicit in their chosen medium, rather than just focusing on one element.
AB - Entertainment-education has proved to be an engaging medium through which to explore health and social issues in populations. Given the popularity of the zombie theme in popular culture it is no surprise therefore that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention adopted this theme in an effort to engage youth and young adults in emergency preparedness. However, an earlier observational study involving elementary school children based on this premise raised concerns that it may have unexpectedly promoted a focus on firearms. A randomized control study involving 89 children (average age 10.4 years) was therefore conducted to explore this possibility in more depth. One group was exposed to a natural disaster scenario, while the other group was exposed to the zombie pandemic theme. When subsequently asked to prepare emergency kit lists, participants in the zombie themed scenario were 15.84 times as likely to include firearms in their lists compared with participants who were exposed to the natural disaster scenario. Although the sample size in this study was small, it is suggested that future interventions using entertainment-education need to explore all aspects of the messages implicit in their chosen medium, rather than just focusing on one element.
KW - CDC
KW - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
KW - children
KW - emergency preparedness
KW - entertainment-education
KW - weapons culture
KW - zombie pandemic preparedness
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85025078213&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1090198116677280
DO - 10.1177/1090198116677280
M3 - Article
C2 - 27837014
AN - SCOPUS:85025078213
SN - 1090-1981
VL - 44
SP - 519
EP - 523
JO - Health Education and Behavior
JF - Health Education and Behavior
IS - 4
ER -