L. Meghan Peirce

"Botswana’s Edutainment Soap, Makgabaneng: A Fiske Genre Analysis"

Makgabaneng is an entertainment-education radio serial drama in Botswana. The name means “Rocky Road”, as its motto is that “Life is a journey on a rocky path. The hope is, which every fall, there is a Rise.” It first aired August 20, 2001, in an effort to address critical HIV/AIDS awareness messages among 10-49 year-old citizens in Botswana (The Republic of Botswana Popular Report, 2005). It is one of the few HIV/AIDs organizations that produce messages based on behavioral change theory.

In 2000, behavioral scientists developed the M.A.R.C.H strategy to help change risky health behaviors associated with HIV/AIDS. M.A.R.C.H. stands for Modeling And Reinforcement to Combat HIV/AIDS. The modeling aspect of the strategy suggests that audiences learn how to handle various situations through character modeling. This is consistent with Bandura’s Social Learning Theory, which states, “learning can occur through observing media role-models and this vicarious learning can, under certain conditions, be more effective then direct experiential learning” (Singhal et al, 2002).

Makgabaneng has addressed these elements through their positive, negative, and transitional character development strategy. Each produced storyline includes a positive role model who consistently makes responsible health decisions and a negative character that consistently engages in risky and irresponsible behavior. Most importantly, transitional characters are included who may start making risky decisions, but evolve over the series into an empowered, knowledgeable, and positive character. These dynamic transitional characters most likely serve as the most identifiable role models for audience members, as they are neither consistently positive nor consistently negative.

Fiske’s research explains how popular media is a representation that aids in maintaining dominant ideologies through culture rituals by examining the three foci of text: the formal qualities of programs and their flow; the intertextual relations within the itself, with other media and with conversation; and the study of the socially situated readers and the process of reading. Social change is able to occur in this environment through constant tension between those with social power and subordinate groups trying to gain power, an imperative understanding in edutainment research.

Much of Fiske’s work focuses on the soap opera genre. “All soaps are highly sexual, and many women use terms more conventionally applied to male pornography to describe their reaction to them. The soap opera press frequently emphasize sexuality, most commonly in discussion of love scenes or in descriptions and photographs of the male hunks” (Fiske, 1987, 186). However, many edutainment soaps are trying to decrease the amount of relationships and sexual tension between characters in their efforts to educate audiences.

This study aims to examine the radio-soap Makgabaneng through a textual analysis to understand how relationships are presented in accordance with Fiske’s description of the ‘soap genre’. This study explores the boundaries of the soap drama, especially when minimal sexuality is presented in the storyline. Moreover, it hopes to gain a better understanding of the social change balance between entertainment and education.