STORIES MATTER: How New Entertainment Narratives About Health Can Influence Mindsets and Policy

In a world of information overload, stories have the power to grab our attention. They evoke emotions, relate to our experiences, transport us and make meaning by connecting seemingly random dots. Our minds aggregate those stories—from entertainment, art, traditions, our surroundings, policies and other experiences—into narratives that help us interpret the world and how it works. Narratives, in turn, shape public opinion—and so public policy as well—about urgent concerns like structural inequities in health outcomes. In short, narrative change can drive policy change.

 To inform the growing field of narrative change, the Norman Lear Center’s Media Impact Project is exploring how media and entertainment narratives impact audiences’ understanding of health and well-being, disparities and solutions; and how entertainment might play a key role in shifting mindsets toward equity, justice and systemic change. Ultimately, this work aims to increase public support for more equitable policies, programs and practices.

Support for this research was provided by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Read the Research Highlights
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Research Reports

The first year of this research project included:
  1. Formative research, including an examination of previous research on media representations of social determinants and their impact on audiences, as well as in-depth interviews with 15 subject-matter experts and communicators;
  2. A qualitative thematic analysis of narratives related to social determinants of health in scripted TV and film from 2015-2020;
  3. A nationally representative audience survey to understand people’s mindsets about a Culture of Health and their tastes in entertainment;
  4. An online experiment to test the effectiveness of different COVID-19 stories—based on existing narratives in entertainment—on perceptions of responsibility and support for systemic solutions
This research is ongoing:
 
  1. We are conducting systematic content analysis to better understand the frequency and context of Culture of Health-related concepts in scripted and unscripted entertainment, news, and more.
  2. The Lear Center’s Hollywood, Health & Society program is engaged in outreach to the creative community, providing writers with the tools and resources to tell stories about structural inequities and systemic solutions. 
  3. When a suitable TV storyline arises from this outreach, we will evaluate its impact on viewers’ attitudes, mindsets and support for relevant policies.

Narratives as a Tool: Shifting Mindsets at Scale

Our researchers worked with the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) — a UK-based organization that uses insights from behavioral science to inform policy — on a COVID-19-19 message-testing study. We developed four COVID-19 stories, based on health narratives we saw in entertainment, and measured their effects on people’s perceptions of responsibility and support for systemic solutions.

Media narratives can drive and support meaningful, equitable change.
The Norman Lear Center's Media Impact Project researches how entertainment and news influence our thoughts, attitudes, beliefs, knowledge and actions. We work with researchers, the film and TV industry, nonprofits, and news organizations, and share our research with the public. We are part of the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.