Soul City Series 4
Also: Soul City
Fourth series of South Africa's prime-time Soul City TV drama, with a radio drama and print booklets, built around HIV/AIDS and domestic violence and paired with advocacy for implementing the 1998 Domestic Violence Act.
- Years
- 1999
- Country
- South Africa
- Topic
- Gender based violenceHIV/STI
- Asks people to
- Reduce stigmaSeek helpStartSupport a policy
- Strategy
- Entertainment educationPolicy pairedService link
- Channel
- HotlinePrintRadioTV
- Audience
- General public
Evidence
ObservationalMixed
Before/after national survey plus national qualitative study run by Soul City's own researchers. Reach: TV 86%, radio 65%, booklets 25%. Domestic violence: 41% had heard of the helpline; 10% increase in those disagreeing that domestic violence is a private affair; 22% shift in perceived social norms; the evaluation attributes implementation of the Domestic Violence Act largely to the intervention. Reductions in violence could not be shown (Usdin et al. 2005). HIV: reports change at individual and community levels via regression on exposure, without a comparison group (Goldstein et al. 2005).
Sponsor (who paid)
- Soul City Institute for Health and Development Communication NGO, creator
- National Network on Violence Against Women NGO, partner
Credits (who made it)
Sources
- Goldstein S, Usdin S, Scheepers E, Japhet G. Communicating HIV and AIDS, what works? A report on the impact evaluation of Soul City's fourth series. J Health Commun 2005;10(5):465-83 evaluation · 2005 · DOI 10.1080/10810730591009853 · PMID 16199389
- Usdin S, Scheepers E, Goldstein S, Japhet G. Achieving social change on gender-based violence: a report on the impact evaluation of Soul City's fourth series. Soc Sci Med 2005;61(11):2434-45 evaluation · 2005 · DOI 10.1016/j.socscimed.2005.04.035 · PMID 16006028
- Usdin S et al. The value of advocacy in promoting social change: implementing the new Domestic Violence Act in South Africa. Reprod Health Matters 2000;8(16):55-65 history · 2000 · DOI 10.1016/s0968-8080(00)90187-3 · PMID 11424250
- 'Edutainment' in South Africa: a force for change in health. Interview with Shereen Usdin. Bull World Health Organ 2009 history · 2009 · DOI 10.2471/blt.09.050809 · PMID 19705006
Research notes
Credit from PubMed abstracts (authors are Soul City staff; Garth Japhet is a co-founder), fetched 2026-10-22. Start year 1999 inferred from the Reprod Health Matters 2000 advocacy paper (DVA passed 1998) and series chronology; not stated in the abstracts, verify. Funders, broadcaster (SABC) and episode count not confirmed from a fetched page. Self-evaluation; no comparison group.
Record cases/soul-city-series-4.json, updated 2026-10-22· Link to this campaign