ABSTRACT
We began our examination of the entertainment-education literature with the assumption that it would be similar in terms of its treatment of theory to other health communication. Typically, health educators or creative talent develop public health communication with little theoretical guidance in the actual message development (Witte, 1996; Nzyuko, 1996). Even when formative research is conducted, little of the information influences the health communication (other than perhaps demographic data). The a priori atheoretical nature of public health communication is contrasted with a wide array of posthoc theoretical explanations for success and failure. It is more difficult to assert any solid claims about health communication successes or failures when the theory is chosen after the messages have been developed.
