Media for Development International
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Welbodi Partnership


MFDI is happy to announce that we have agreed to be a fiduciary partner for Welbodi Partnership, a UK-registered charity established to support pediatric healthcare in Sierra Leone, a West African country in which one in four children die before the age of five. Any donations received at MFDI for Welbodi Partnership will be passed along to them without any deduction for the good work they are doing in Sierra Leone. If you would like to give, please send checks or transfers made out to MFDI and with the Welbodi Partnership designated in the memo or supporting documents. Online donations can be made by clicking on this button.
Project Updates

Now Available! MOPANI JUNCTION


All 104 episodes of the RADIO SERIAL DRAMA from Zimbabwe, Mopani Junction are now available on the web. All the English, Shona and Ndebele scripts and several evaluation documents are here. Many other bits of information are available from the MFD Zimbabwe website. Also MP3 files are available for listening or downloading from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Communications Programs Media/Materials Clearinghouse (JHU/CCP/MMC).
The 23-minute VHS or DVD of the “Journey to Mopani Junction”, a video on the process of making the radio soap opera, is also available from MFDI. CDs of the English, Shona or Ndebele episodes are also available at MFDI and at the JHU/CCP/MMC. Please enquire from info@mfdi.org. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) sponsored this important HIV/AIDS communication work.
You can download any of the 104 English scripts or evaluation documents from the LINKS and DOCUMENTS page on this website.

YELLOW CARD really works…
time to re-release it in DVD


MFDI would like to announce the completion of a PhD dissertation by Debra Buenting entitled, “Audience Involvement with Yellow Card, an Entertainment-Education Initiative Promoting Safe-Sex Behaviour Among African Youth.” Buenting used surveys, focus groups and one-on-one interviews to assess how young Nigerians interacted with the characters of the Yellow Card film. Despite cultural differences between Nigeria and Zimbabwe—where the film was produced—audiences perceived the characters to be similar to themselves. The study, in fact, found evidence of intense audience involvement, which facilitated the educational goals of the film. Audiences engaged in parasocial interaction (PSI)—a perceived personal relationship audience members have with a character or celebrity—by discussing the characters and plot, becoming emotionally involved with the characters, and engaging in cognitive processing where they critiqued the conduct of the characters. They also related the text to their personal experiences and problems and reconstructed the story, suggesting plot changes.

Buenting found the film had a significant positive effective on the target audience, with most participants expressing a desire or intent to practice safe sex, the main theme of the film. Results showed the film was well remembered by older Nigerian teenagers several years after its initial release. On the other hand, she found it wasn’t well known and fondly remembered by younger teens.

This study is significant for its findings on the effectiveness of Yellow Card, but also because of what it found about parasocial interaction in general. PSI has typically been viewed as a process which only occurs over time, as with a television series, not a film. However, this study found that both first-time exposure and repeated exposure participants quickly engaged in parasocial interaction, validating film as an entertainment-education medium. Results showed that audiences were attracted to the characters and perceived the characters to be similar to themselves, even though they were from different cultures. Both attraction and perceived similarity facilitated intense parasocial involvement that led to both a desire to continue the perceived relationships, and high motivation to practice responsible sex, the central educational message of the film.

In her dissertation, Buenting highly recommend the film be re-released throughout sub-Saharan Africa. MFDI is now completing a DVD version of Yellow Card, (with English, French, Swahili, Shona, Ndebele, Portuguese, and Pidgin English all on one DVD) and is seeking partners to help release it again. A second major release should double the impact of the film at a tiny fraction of the cost of the production and first pan-African distribution effort. Please contact MFDI if you would like a copy of the dissertation.