BREAKAWAY: The generative power of story for deep learning and youth empowerment

Abstract Information: Entertainment-education is a social and behavior change communication strategy that leverages the power of storytelling to address taboo and complex issues. BREAKAWAY is an entertainment-education intervention purposefully designed to educate young people around the world about violence against women and girls. It includes a digital game for episodic play and a set of group activities guided after gameplay by trained facilitators. The BREAKAWAY game uses soccer as an international language to engage youth. Based on the Sabido methodology of entertainment-education production, the main game characters serve as positive and negative role models in relatable scenarios where girls are mistreated because of their gender. The player takes on the role of a boy who joins a soccer team and faces peer pressure when a talented new girl in town becomes the target of bullying by the team captain who doesn’t believe girls should be allowed to play. By making choices at various turning points, the player can become a “transitional character” in the story and ultimately help their team win the championship if they dared to break away from the male-dominant and toxic gender norms. The facilitated group activities include discussion questions and fun exercises corresponding to the story arc in the game to help players better understand the narrative, reflect on critical plots, and connect with their lived experiences. They also teach them the cycle of abuse and coping strategies to prevent violence. A mix of quantitative, qualitative, and participatory research methods have been used to monitor and assess the impact of BREAKAWAY in El Salvador and Guatemala. Participants have consistently shown a high level of engagement with the game narrative and main characters (across measures of narrative transportation, character identification, media enjoyment and appreciation). The intervention has been a conversation starter for participants to share with trusted family members and friends (M = 15). Their likelihood of seeking information increased significantly, and 88% took action to learn more about community resources. Participatory sketching showed participants’ empathy toward the female character being bullied in the story. And follow-up interviews with the participants revealed real-life examples of girls standing up for themselves and boys intervening as bystanders through the critical incident technique. Although shifting gender norms in strong machismo cultures is incredibly challenging, the BREAKAWAY intervention shows great potential and generative power of storytelling among youth when they see characters like themselves, learn about different choices and consequences, and deepen their individual and social learning by sharing their own stories.

Relevance Statement: Entertainment-education is an internationally recognized communication strategy that uses the power of storytelling for social and behavior change. I have been a researcher and program evaluator in this field for over 15 years. Never had a chance to attend AEA conferences before. Very excited to see this year's conference theme. BREAKAWAY is an exemplary entertainment-education project that showcases how digital entertainment like games coupled with facilitated group activities can meaningfully engage young people from different parts of the world to tackle the issues of gender-based violence. This intervention has been implemented in many other communities such as West Bank, South African, and Rwanda. But I will focus on the mixed methods evaluations in El Salvador and Guatemala. Here are some related publications I have co-authored:
Wang, H., & Singhal, A. (2021). Mind the gap! Confronting the challenges of translational communication research in entertainment-education. In L. B. Frank & P. Falzone, (Eds.) (2021). Entertainment-education behind the scenes: Case studies for theory and practice (pp. 223-242). London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
Wang, H., & Singhal, A. (2021). Theorizing entertainment-education: A complementary perspective to the development of entertainment theory. In P. Vorderer & C. Klimmt (Eds)., The Oxford Handbook of Entertainment Theory (pp. 819-838). New York: Oxford University Press.
Wang, H., Wu, Y., Choi, J. H., & DeMarle, A. (2019). Players as transitional characters: How youth can “BREAKAWAY” from gender-based violence. Well Played, 8, 27-40.
Wang, H., Choi, J. H., Wu, Y. C., & DeMarle, A. (2019). BREAKAWAY: A narrative-based digital game to educate youth about gender-based discrimination and violence. In K. Schrier (Ed.), Learning, education, and games (Volume 3): 100 Games to Use in the classroom and beyond (pp. 69-75). Pittsburgh, PA: ETC Press.
Wang, H., Choi, J. H., Wu., Y., & DeMarle, A. (2018). BREAKAWAY: Combating violence against women and girls through soccer video game and youth camps. Health & New Media Research, 2(4).
Singhal, A., Wang, H., Rogers, E. M. (2013). The rising tide of entertainment-education in communication campaigns. In R. Rice & C. Atkin (Eds.), Public Communication Campaigns (pp. 321-333). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Wang, H. & Singhal, A. (2009). Entertainment-education through digital games. In Ritterfeld, U., Cody, M. J., & Vorderer, P. (Eds.) Serious games: Mechanisms and effects (pp. 271-292). New York: Routledge.