WRITERS AND PRODUCERS GATHER TO ADDRESS THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN DAYTIME DRAMAS

CDC Sentinel for Health Award for Daytime Drama to be Presented at Soap Summit VII

Los Angeles: Today, Population Communications International (PCI) announced that on October 25th and 26th producers, writers, and network executives from daytime dramas will gather in Los Angeles for Soap Summit VII. The Soap Summit annually brings together these individuals responsible for the content of the ten American daytime drama serials. The purpose of the Summit is to heighten the awareness of the creative community as to its importance in shaping attitudes and behavior in this country. This year’s Summit deals with the roles of women as seen on television and in reality. Arianna Huffington, author, nationally syndicated columnist, and on-air personality, will open the Summit with a keynote address at the Friday, October 25th dinner at the St. Regis Hotel. Ms. Huffington will present her perspective on the status of women in America.

“The Soap Summit provides key individuals involved in America’s ten major daytime dramas with an opportunity to reflect on their roles as mass communicators,” said Sonny Fox, Senior Vice President, Population Communications International. “We do so by offering passionate testimony as to the health value and educational potential of interweaving accurate health and social content into soap operas and consequently encouraging the soap community to meet that challenge.”

On Saturday, October 26th, the Summit will continue at the Century Plaza Hotel. Dr. Florence Haseltine, Director, Center for Population Research at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and Founder, Society for Women’s Health Research, will discuss the uniqueness of women as exemplified in health issues. Dr. Haseltine was instrumental in bringing the issue of research on women’s health to the attention of senior federal officials and prominent members of the media and by doing so placing it on the nation’s priority research agenda.

Martha Nochimson, author of “No End to Her,” will examine the unique definition of women as developed on soap operas. Ms. Nochimson postulates that by challenging male-dominated Hollywood formulas and inventing strong, active female characters, soap operas have created unorthodox narratives of femininity and women’s desires.

“The open-ended format of soaps has led to portrayals of women that are unique to these daytime dramas,” said Martha Nochimson. “Instead of the neat wrap-up in a movie, which most often ends up with women playing more or less traditional roles in society, soaps have had to continually invent new places for their female characters to go. By the very nature of open-ended format, the soaps present strong women who resist their roles in male hierarchies and articulate instead a feminine power of inclusion.”

At the Saturday luncheon, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will present its third annual Sentinel for Health Award for Daytime Drama. The award recognizes exemplary portrayals of daytime dramas that inform, educate, and motivate viewers to make choices for healthier and safer lives. The health storylines selected as this year’s finalists by topic experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are “HIV Storyline” from The Bold & the Beautiful, and “Ashley’s Breast Cancer” from The Young & the Restless. USC Annenberg School’s Hollywood, Health, and Society Program has been working on behalf of the CDC to provide the Summit with CDC speakers on significant health topics and to host the Sentinel Awards at the Summit.

Collectively soap operas command nine hours of network time and reach between fifteen and twenty million viewers a day. Over many years, these series have built up an identification with their characters that allows their behavior and actions to have a substantial impact on the attitudes and behavior of the audiences. CDC analysis of data from a 1999 Healthstyles Survey indicates that nearly half of viewers who watch soap operas at least twice a week report that they learned something about a disease or how to prevent one from watching a soap opera. More than one-third of these viewers took action as a result of this knowledge.

The CDC has recently funded the first year of a unique two-year research project that will be undertaken by Population Communications International, Ohio University, University of New Mexico, and USC Annenberg’s Norman Lear Center to determine the impact of health storylines in American daytime dramas on foreign audiences.

For more information, please contact Diana Buckhantz at 323-934-0443.

"Many thanks to Population Communications International for hosting the award program, and to the judges, advisors and CDC staff who participated in this year's award activity. A special thank you to our colleagues in daytime drama who continue to reinforce important health information in story lines. Your work is having an enormous impact on your audiences."

Vicki Beck, M.S.
Director, Entertainment-Education Program
CDC Office of Communication

Below are three viewer letters that accompanied The Young and the Restless entry package for "Raul's Diabetes."

A MOTHER WROTE:
Your story line on diabetes couldn't have come at a better time and it really impacted my life in a way I never thought possible....My son was diagnosed with diabetes as a college student and spent three days in intensive care at the same time Raul was experiencing it. I would truly like to speak to someone from your show to let them know the relevance of this topic to me and my family. We all had to learn about diabetes just like Raul's family and friends had to learn. My parents took it very hard, but my mom is an avid fan of the Y&R, and seeing it played out and listening to everything helped her to come to some sort of terms with it.

A GRANDMOTHER WROTE:
I would like you to know by watching Y&R like I always do, and have been for over 25 years, that it helped me to find out why I have been so sick. So I asked my doc for a test and told him how I was feeling, and I am diabetic. Thanks for putting that on your show. I'm 45 years old and thanks to you I'll be around to see my 3rd grandchild due in January 2002.

A COUPLE WROTE:
This past week we were caring for our friends' children while they were out of the country. Their five-year-old daughter was just not herself. She was craving water all the time and drinking it so fast -- as if she inhaled it. My husband tapes Y&R, and he told me -- "remember Raul?" There were many more symptoms and several visits to the pediatrician before diabetes was diagnosed. One more day and she would have been in a coma. Thanks to Y&R, she is OK. Your story line on diabetes was very educational and very real.