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With the growing number of entertainment-education (E-E) interventions worldwide, and the extensive evaluation research on their impacts, the time is ripe to explore in-depth the theoretical underpinnings of entertainment-education. This introductory article provides a historical background to this special issue of Communication Theory on entertainment-education, and charts a 5-pronged theoretical agenda for future research on entertainment-education. Theoretical investigations of entertainment-education should pay greater attention to the tremendous variability among entertainment-education interventions (Agenda #1) and to the various resistances to entertainment-education interventions (Agenda #2). E-E theorizing will also benefit from close investigations of the rhetorical, play, and affective aspects of E-E (Agenda #3). Further, E-E "effects" research should consider employing a broader understanding of individual, group, and social-level changes (Agenda #4) and be more receptive to methodological pluralism and measurement ingenuity (Agenda #5).Communication Theory 118 tended to dominate most theoretical writing and research about entertainment-education, and Sabido's methodology for the design of E-E programs, especially soap operas, influenced most later work on entertainment-education by communication professionals around the world. There exists a natural fit between Bandura's theory and entertainmenteducation interventions, which often seek to influence audience behavior change by providing positive and negative role models to the audience.This special issue of Communication Theory seeks to broaden the theoretical understanding of entertainment-education interventions by inviting consideration of not only social cognitive theory but also of other communication theories that have, or may, contribute to improved understanding and design of future E-E programs. The theories to consider include social learning/social cognitive theory, the elaboration likelihood model, audience involvement, dramatic theories, social constructivism, uses and gratifications, agenda setting, knowledge-gap, cultivation, and the diffusion of innovations. Further, in identifying common themes that characterize entertainment-education interventions and evaluations, we also propose a theoretical agenda for entertainmenteducation scholars.Initially, two main sets of communication scholars were engaged in the investigation of the entertainment-education strategy: (a) a set of communication scholars, including D. Lawrence Kincaid, Phyllis Piotrow, Douglas Storey, Thomas Valente, and their colleagues at the Johns Hopkins University's School of Hygiene and Public Health (now the Bloomberg School of Public Health), the Center for Communication Programs, who mainly conducted evaluation research on entertainmenteducation broadcasts to promote family planning in developing nations, and (b) the present guest editors

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I chapter summarizes lessons learned about the use of entertainment-edu " on in communication campaigns dealing with family planning, gender ality, HIV prevention, and environmental conservation. A communication paign (a) intends to achieve specific effects, (b) in a relatively large num of individuals, (c) within a specified period of time, and (d) through an anized set of communication activities (Rogers & Storey, 1987). E ENTERTAINMENT-EDUCATION STRATEGY e entertainment-education strategy abrogates the needless dichotomy in Imost all mass media content-that mass media programs must either be enter lning or educational (Fischer & Melnik, 1979; Singhal & Rogers, 1989). ./!,'ntertainment-education is the process of purposely designing and implement InK a media message to both entertain and educate to increase audience mem bers' knowledge about an educational issue, create favorable attitudes, and dlsnge overt behavior (Singhal & Rogers, 1999). Entertainment-education /leeks to capitalize on the popular appeal of entertainment media to show indi viduals how they can live safer, healthier, and happier lives (Piotrow, Kincaid, I{imon,

1,2 By 2020, as per Census projections, 25% of American teens will be Latina/o. 3These changing demographics hold significant implications for public health. Although risky sexual behaviors among American youth have declined since 1990, Latina/o youth have higher rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and unintended pregnancies than other racial/ethnic groups. [4][5][6] One in 3 Latina teens become pregnant before the age of 20, 1.5 times the national average. 3 This is not surprising as only about half of sexually active Latina/o teens reported using a condom during their last intercourse, and only 1 in 7 used birth control pills or other contraceptives. 7 Latina teen mothers bear the greatest burden of higher order and rapid repeat pregnancies. Edutainment programs are also grounded in social cognitive theory, an agentic framework of psychosocial change with a dual path of influence: direct exposure to media models and indirect social learning through interpersonal discussions. 27 The transportation-imagery model posits that narratives can be highly immersive, prompting 6 the audience to pay attention, generate mental imagery of a prospective potentiality, and transport them into a world of different time and space. 28 In addition, narratives resonate particularly well with the audience when they perceive the stories to be realistic and can identify with the characters based on existing similarities or desirable attributes. 26,29,30 Further, theories of culture-centric health promotion emphasize that narratives built with familiar cultural markers are especially effective when targeting minority populations. 12,31Recent meta-analyses have demonstrated the advantages of using narratives in health interventions: Narratives have a sizable significant impact on combined changes in attitudes, intention, and behavior, even if they have a relatively small effect size in individual outcomes. Narratives are powerful interventional tools for eliciting affective audience response; and evidence suggests that those delivered through audio and video are more effective than print. [32][33][34] Moreover, empirical studies show supporting evidence of narrative-based interventions for racial/ethnic minority groups to reduce disparities. 35-37Narrative persuasion theories guided the ELH program development (in terms of character building and content production) and its program evaluation (in terms of choosing key measures and hypotheses). ELH PROGRAM DEVELOPMENTAt least 3 unique aspects of ELH set it apart from popular series such as Degrassi completed the study. They were randomly assigned to 1 of the following conditions. Condition 1 (n=30) was a true control group without any intervention. Condition 2 (n=21) was a non-dramatic text version of ELH presented as a newspaper story.Condition 3 (n=21) was a dramatic text version, presented as an ELH script. Condition 4 (n=32) was an online drama, presented as an abbreviated version of ELH Hulu series.Condition 5 (n=32) was a transmedia version, presented as the online dra...