Why we should use motion comics to educate adolescents on reproductive health

Young people ages 15-24 years, especially African-American and Hispanic/Latino/Latina youth as well as young men who have sex with men (MSM), are disproportionately affected by sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) including HIV infection. Educational-entertainment (EE), or “edutainment,” in the form of serial dramas is an effective method for providing educational information to young people in an innovative format. EE can be used to deliver health education messages through dedicated health-focused serial dramas on television, radio,  the internet; in comic strips, comic books, graphic novels; in low- and high-tech games; and by integrating health-related messages into pre-existing forms of entertainment (e.g., creating a health storyline within a popular program).  Health communication narratives have been used successfully for HIV/STD prevention communication both domestically and globally. Comic books, in particular, offer a low-tech, low-cost and widely accessible means of telling stories and delivering HIV/STD prevention messages to at-risk young people across literacy levels and socioeconomic statuses. Research indicates that 95% of young people use the internet and 73% own a cell phone to access information. Technological advances in comic books such as digital comics and motion comics (i.e., the combination of digital comics with animation, voice-overs and a musical score) have created opportunities for novel and more engaging ways of viewing comics, especially for youth.