This piece, published in the June 5th, 2006 edition of The New Yorker Magazine examines the use of entertainment-education soap operas, based on attendance at a conference organised by Population Communications International (PCI) in Mexico. Known worldwide as telenovelas, television and radio soap operas supported and developed by development organisations are being transformed in many countries as vehicles to teach literacy, combat AIDS, fight domestic abuse, and encourage civic participation. This article describes how various organisations, such as PCI, the BBC World Service Trust, and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Communication Programs (CCP), among others, work with grassroots community groups and social workers to incorporate entertainment-education methodologies into scripts that reflect the cultures and traditions of their audiences in economically poor countries while transmitting messages of empowerment. In many of these cases, the broadcasts are written, produced and performed by the creative talent in the countries in which the stories take place. This article delves into some of the history of Sabido's work - its origins, influences and supporters - and the history and trends of telenovelas in general.

Several key elements are noted, based on interviews with PCI staff and consultants, as well as workshop members.

• Entertainment is key - Telenovelas can include stories centred around development issues, but they must be entertaining. "If they sense that the program is 'educational,' they'll be gone in a second," said one PCI consultant. The trick, according to this article, is to get a health message across while still producing a soap opera that anyone would want to watch.
• Behaviour change is key - In the words of Miguel Sabido, quoted in this article, "It is not enough just to change people's attitudes," Sabido said. "You have to change how they behave." Most soap operas tend to reflect the values of the culture without question. Characters in entertainment-education soap operas who model proposed new attitudes and behaviours often go through great struggles and challenges, but in the end they triumph. The assumption is that viewers, even those facing extreme economic and social disadvantages, can gain much more control over their lives if they are shown how to go about it.
• Research and consultation with communites about cultural standards and societal context are key - For example, "In 2000, the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs decided to sponsor a soap opera in Nepal. Taboos about maternal blood discourage anyone from touching a woman who's in labor, and most rural women deliver their babies alone; the country has one of the highest infant-death rates in the world. Diane Summers, who heads the Johns Hopkins program in Nepal, told [the author] that researchers realized that the women by themselves had little power to change their circumstances; in order to be effective, she said, a show had to be pitched to their husbands and their mothers-in-law."
• Be aware that telenovelas with development foci may be political in nature as well - One example provided is a BBC shortwave radio programme in Burma, "Thabyegone Ywa," that focusses on basic health issues, but it also deals with economic and civic development. Burma's military junta has made it a treasonable offense to listen to the show. In addition, Sonny Fox, PCI's board chairman, noted that the keynote speaker at the second annual "Soap Summit" was the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, who spoke of the ability of soap operas to reach people and raise awareness about development issues such as health, human rights and poverty in ways that perhaps the government never could.