Soul City – Institute for Health and Development Communication

This 60-page document details the purpose, methodology, and results of a reception study exploring how parental viewers from specific racial groups in Johannesburg, South Africa perceived the TV series Soul Buddyz 1. Produced by Soul City and SABC Education, this series is a multi media "edutainment" vehicle that aims to promote the health and well-being of children 8-12 years old. The study explores how Soul Buddyz 1 encouraged and became part of communication between parents and their children. The research was carried out as a qualitative study based on focus group interviews.

Excerpts from the Conclusion - organised around each of the aims of the study - follow:

"1) To explore why parents watched Soul Buddyz 1 and what they got out of it.

The parents had watched Soul Buddyz 1 because they found the programme entertaining and educational. A lot of them felt that they were being educated alongside with their children...

Another reason for watching was that the parents felt that...they could reflect themselves as parents in relation to the parent/child relationships represented on Soul Buddyz 1 and that the programme provided them with insight into 'a children's world'....

What especially made Soul Buddyz 1 provide useful solutions and models for action in the eyes of the parents was the programmes close relation to their own and their children's life circumstances....It was this relevance and authenticity that made the parents able make use of the models for action that Soul Buddyz 1 represented as they could mirror themselves and their children in the narratives.

2) To explore how Soul Buddyz 1 encouraged communication between the parents and their children....

According to the parents Soul Buddyz 1 had instigated discussions between parents and children related to the narratives and the issues taken up. Soul Buddyz 1 was imbedded in the communication between parents and children as a reference point for 'truth' that provided explanations and functioned as an authority regarding moral judgements.

The programme had fuelled communication between parents and children by introducing issues relevant to people’s life circumstances into their living rooms....Especially in relation to sex education the parents emphasised that Soul Buddyz 1 had helped creating a greater openness because the programme had worked as an ice-breaker subsequently making it easier to talk. The parents felt that Soul Buddyz 1 had...made them see things from their children's perspective and as such made the parents feel better equipped to deal with them. Hence Soul Buddyz 1 was...able to bridge this generation gap, by speaking 'modern children's language' and by providing parents with a trust in their children’s abilities to cope with the challenges ahead of them.

3) To explore whether there were any differences in the way the series was perceived across race.

Soul Buddyz 1 had the capacity to speak to the parents from all the race groups included in this study. It was largely perceived the same way - the parents more or less emphasised the same things in relation to the series and there were not any great differences in the way the parents related to the issues taken up. They all felt the issues taken up were relevant to their children and to themselves...

4) To explore how parents related to the values espoused by Soul Buddyz 1

...Soul Buddyz 1 was regarded as a programme that reinforced morals and values that helped keeping the society together and helped equipping the children to stay clear of social problems.

Soul Buddyz 1 was appreciated for espousing values such as unity, support, openness, accept and respect. The programme was perceived to look to the future and communicate to 'the new generation'. In this respect the values espoused by Soul Buddyz 1 were perceived to create a supportive environment for children to grow up in and to encourage unity between people across race and socio-economic backgrounds....

Soul Buddyz 1 was highly valued for its capacity to both criticise culture and provide cultural identity....This 'cultural flexibility' was seen as a value that was necessary to adopt in today’s South Africa.

5) To explore how parents perceived the way Soul Buddyz 1 dealt with sex education.

...The parents regarded the programme to provide children with the needed information to know their bodies and they didn’t perceive the education children got from Soul Buddyz 1 to encourage them to have sex...

The parents all felt that their children should know about sex. The need for openness about sex was especially associated with the threat of HIV/AIDS, teenage pregnancy, and sexual abuse...

The parents perceived their children in general to be very exposed to sex in the public space. This greater exposure to sex and as such also the sex education on Soul Buddyz 1, had made it easier for the parents to speak to their children about sex. On the other hand however, they felt that this greater exposure to sex was also what had pushed the openness...

Communicating into this field, the parents perceived Soul Buddyz 1 as a programme that could be trusted for reliable information and as a programme that educated their children in a responsible manner..."

Soul City website [7] on March 18 2005.