The purpose of this thesis was to explore audience involvement with the entertainment-education radio soap opera Never Too Late in Thailand. The main sources of data were a mail survey administered to the listeners who sent letters and text messages to the program, providing 128 completed questionnaires, and the letters and text messages from the listeners. The thesis addressed responses to the program at three levels of parasocial interaction: cognitive, affective and behavioral, as well as self-efficacy, which is the belief that a change can be made.
Key findings included: the more listeners talked about the program the more they reported making changes in their lives; cognitive parasocial interaction and self-efficacy were the most common responses. Education level was a predictor of talking about the program; letter writers were more likely to talk about the program and desire further contact than were text message writers.
My Research