Sexto Sentido: Is it feasible for American TV?

For my Comm Capstone class last year, we took some time to look into edutainment shows to see how well they were able to communicate information about sexual health in each episode. The show that we focused on was a show called Sexto Sentido, which means "Sixth Sense". The show is a Nicaraguan Telenovela about teens that are dealing with lots of different issues such as teen pregnancy and domestic violence. What's really interesting about this show is that some of the actors are also writers as well, and really grapple with the issues that they are talking about or have even gone through a lot of these situations. So when someone watches an episode, it feels less like a PSA and more like a show because the characters respond to these situations in honest ways instead of "correct" ways.

Recently as we've been talking about possible positive effects of media or even how media can encourage healthy sexual behavior, it reminded me a lot of this show and the ways in which it affected the Nicaraguan population. We saw a short video where it not only showed the episode, but also how people in Nicaragua responded to these issues after watching the show. What was interesting but not really surprising was that viewers that watched the show often started to have similar attitudes about pregnancies, homosexuality, and healthy relationships without watching PSAs. And often the show would have the actors and actresses do a short announcement at the end about getting more information on the topic they talked about. According to Delgado and Austin (2007), media can have an affect on viewers that watch TV that incorporate sexual health messages. For their study, it was found that "Viewers, defined as those who saw one or more of the televised announcements, were 2.3 times more likely to report condom use than non-viewers,". In the same way, one could say that Sexto Sentido had a profound effect on the viewers of Nicaragua by shaping their attitudes about different sexual and social issues. And by pairing it with announcements at the end, it reinforced the message.

Now while these effects seem viable and positive, it makes me wonder just how feasible this would be for TV shows in the US. After all, Sexto Sentido has a particular tone as a telenovela that allows it to be a little more dramatic and blatant than perhaps TV shows in America where the story is more sleek and less emotionally driven. While the idea might seem like a good one, it makes me wonder if having sexual health messages in TV shows actually doable. Because while they do say that viewers were more than 2.3 times likely to have an attitude or behavior change, it is only one example out of many other TV shows that exist and may have conflicting messages about sexuality. It also makes me wonder how these shows would execute these messages in a way that is engaging and subtle enough without being preachy. It's much more easier to do that with health messages because you can incorporate them into medical shows where it's important for the viewer to know the health conditions such as shows like Grey's Anatomy.

But for issues on sexual health, there's a big chance that it can end up being very blatant and obvious, thus making the show not as interesting or engaging. And with the different ways that people can interpret a message on a show, it makes me wonder if this is actually something that is doable. Because if it could, and had just as positive and widespread effects as Sexto Sentido, then it would definitely be something worth looking into.


Resources

Austin, S. B. & Delgado, H. M. (2007). Can media promote responsible sexual behaviors among adolescents and young adults?. Current Opinion in Pediatrics. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.