From On Air - Winter 2001

Soap Summit V - An Awards Ceremony is Born

PCI’s most recent gathering for daytime television writers and executives, Soap Summit V, was held October 13-14 in West Hollywood, California. This year’s topics focused on HIV/AIDS and Body Image.

The summit also featured the premiere presentation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Sentinel for Health Awards, given to soap opera writers and producers who incorporate into their programs an accurate storyline on a critical health issue. Representatives from all ten network daytime dramas attended the first of what is expected to become a much-anticipated annual event.

Four finalists received awards from Dr. James Marks, Director of the CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. It was five years ago, he reminisced, when “we first came together to explore how the soap opera community, PCI, and the nation’s health agencies could join hands to get more health information to [television] viewers through the shows you produce.”

Film clips from the four soap finalists were shown. As the network executives, writers, producers, and actors accepted their awards, they spoke of their commitment to being a positive influence on their audiences and about how the CDC award validates and encourages their efforts.
The winning program was ABC-TV’s One Life to Live for a storyline on breast cancer. Receiving the award, Angela Shapiro, President of ABC Daytime programming, said, “I’m very proud that over the past year each ABC soap opera told stories that not only entertained but also informed the audience about important health issues that have an impact on their lives and the lives of their family and friends.”

Sonny Fox, PCI’s senior vice president of U.S. programs, began the evening session by thanking the attending executives, writers, and producers for taking time from their hectic schedules to attend the summit. Ken Henderson, Chair of PCI’s Board of Directors, gave an overview of PCI’s work throughout the world, and showed a film clip of the making of Bai Xing (Ordinary People), PCI’s successful television drama in China.

The event’s keynote speaker was former U.S. Congressman Ronald V. Dellums. After 28 years of service in the House of Representatives, Mr. Dellums was asked to chair the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS in March, 2000. He said, “Each of us must assume the responsibility for the knowledge that we possess. The level of my knowledge [about HIV/AIDS] has been expanded, and knowledge is both power and empowering. We now have to take a great leap of scale: it must be our voices, our political will, and our financial resources. We must develop a global public-
private partnership that puts the resources there for us to clearly pursue a cure.”

The topic of the first panel discussion was “HIV/AIDS and Television in Communities of Color.” The panel featured 16-year-old Hydeia Broadbent, a remarkable young woman born with HIV who has been living with AIDS since she was 5. Other panelists included community activists Phill Wilson, Victor Sanchez, Eric McGuinnis, and Alex Torres. Industry audience members and panelists agreed that to reach communities of color with messages about HIV/AIDS, television must cast more black and Hispanic characters, and shows’ writers must also have first-hand experience in those communities.
The second topic was “Body Image: The Medium and the Message.”

Speakers included Stacey Handler, the granddaughter of the inventor of the Barbie Doll and author of a book about growing up in the shadow of Barbie; Dr. Jean Kilbourne, head of the Media Education Foundation; and Dr. Jonelle C. Rowe of the Office on Women’s Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources.

Dr. Kilbourne said that body image “is part of a cultural climate in which women are seen as objects. Turning a human being into a ‘thing’ is almost always the first step toward justifying violence against that person. The person is dehumanized, and violence then becomes inevitable. That step is taken with women constantly.”

Dr. Rowe noted that “80 percent of women today are dissatisfied with their appearance, and 50 percent say they’re on diets on any given day of the week.” Panelists included Holly Miller, who spoke about her fight with anorexia; and Edith Coronado and Kneschele Haney, each of whom addressed body image in Hispanic and African-American communities.

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