A graduate of Yale University, William “Bill” Ryerson has spent more than four decades promoting social change in areas such as sustainable population, women’s equality, and the environment. Bill Ryerson is the chair and CEO of the Population Institute and the founder and president of Population Media Center (PMC). Population Media Center is a global sustainability non-profit and broadcast production partner. We create life-changing, popular entertainment for a more sustainable world. PMC uses entertainment-education strategies to improve the health of people around the world.
Entertainment-education programs are planned media messages that both entertain and educate audiences to help them enjoy safe and healthy lives. Here are a few benefits:
- Entertainment-education programs improve health. Through entertainment-education, entertainment professionals can deliver accurate health information to audiences regarding situations that relate to the characters and their lives. These situations may involve contraception, HIV prevention, and family planning matters. Many people do not stay abreast of changes in these topics. Incorporating the topics into the story lines of entertainment media teaches audience members while entertaining them.
- Entertainment-education programs reach a wide audience. Many audiences members are difficult to reach through traditional forms of education, such as pamphlets. Audiences often pay more attention to other forms of media, such as movies, television, and radio. Because of this, presenting educational information through entertainment sources ensures that a wide range of audience members are exposed to new information.
- Entertainment-education programs save money. Producing radio and television dramas is expensive, but since this form of mass media can draw audiences of millions, the price per audience member is minimal.
