ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the Ethiopian context and research project, then the fear appeal theory, and then the results of the formative research. It provides a step-by-step example of how a theory-based communication intervention can achieve profound attitude and behavior changes. The chapter explains how practitioners, creative talent, and researchers can work together to create effective behavior change communication interventions. Many health communication practitioners advocate using theory to develop their campaign messages, yet when faced with a "real" project and "real" data, often practitioners are at a loss for how to translate theory into a research study and how to translate data collected from a research study into campaign recommendations. Entertainment education is "any communication presentation that delivers a pro-social educational message in an entertainment format". A formative evaluation was conducted to determine key family planning messages according to the Extended Parallel Process Model theoretical tenets.
