Albert Bandura: The Power of Soap Operas

Can TV Shows change the world?

Cinema of Change went to Stanford, CA to meet 91-year old rockstar of Psychology, Albert Bandura.

Bandura pioneered psychological theories and is the most-quoted living psychologist in the world.
Among the decades of theories, he has pioneered an incredible framework for Serialized Dramas as a means of social impact.

He calls this field "Entertainment Education" and the below interview is one-of-a-kind, exclusively available on Cinema of Change.
Hollywood decision-makers should familiarize themselves with Bandura's work, as it speaks volumes about our industry; not learning from him would mean re-inventing the wheel of social impact. We left Stanford with incredible material, now for you to see and learn from.

In this exclusive interview with Robert Rippberger and Tobias Deml (editors of CoC), Albert talks about:

-Entertainment-Education and its theoretical and experimental foundation
-The power of TV vs. Movies, and how serialized content has a stronger long-term impact
-His collaboration with Miguel Sabido, who pioneered the application of Education Entertainment as a TV soap opera producer
-The work of the Population Media Center that has touched 500M+ people and is based on his theories
-How he went from pioneering the Social Learning Theory to studying serial dramas
-Models of influence and perception
-Experimental approaches to media impact
-His work on chilhood aggression
-His hallmark work on Self-Efficacy and its relationship to role modeling in pop culture
-His latest work on global ecology

Jump to a specific section:

0:2:54 What is the large scale impact and significance of media?

0:5:30 Is there a link between violent content and violence?

0:10:28 How can we better understand role models in stories and media?

0:12:10 What is efficacy?

0:14:59 Who can we look to as an effective model?

0:15:58 At what point did you realize the significance of modelling and imagery, especially in film?

0:31:53 How did Miguel Sabido, a Mexican producer, use your research to create a telenovela series, recognized by the UN, which slowed down population growth in Mexico?

0:33:54 What was Miguel’s process in creating the telenovela?

0:38:18 Highlighting Miguel’s effort in learning from the communities personally and integrating their ideas into the telenovela.

0:44:37 What is the relationship between social impact and the authenticity of the content depicted?

0:47:48 What is your opinion on moralizing films that depict the main character as one that may not have the best behavior?

0:50:46 Can you describe how people can navigate the negative model?

0:54:00 What can filmmakers do to analyze their films’ impact?

1:01:09 Can you talk about your Stanford Bobo doll experiment that analyzed the significance of modelling on children?

1:12:12 Does the length of the content matter?

1:16:44 What is the relationship between the complexity of the social issue and the modelling depicted in media?

1:19:20 Has there been efforts from Hollywood producers to learn from you?

1:25:28 What is your advice to filmmakers who want to practice entertainment education?

Read more on Albert's work that spans 70 years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_...

These 90 minutes of exclusive content are provided by Cinema of Change, a Los Angeles-based organization that explores the social impact of entertainment.

www.cinemaofchange.com
Producers: Robert Rippberger, Tobias Deml
Post Production services provided by Prodigium Pictures
Editor: Fernanda Begnini