It seems that non-profits have finally discovered what those of us in the MTV generation have known all along—television can shape culture as well as reflecting it. Amy forwarded me an article this morning from the Christian Science Monitor about a new television show in Nigeria meant to promote peace and conflict resolution. According to the article, Nigerians can be, shall we say… aggressive. Not surprising, really, from a country divided along religious and ethnic lines, one that has been under military rule for 25 of its 45 years of independence.

The Station, backed by American-based Search for Common Ground, features fictional news reporters covering a variety of plot twists. It is the largest television drama project in Africa, but the goal is to address Nigerian social issues of powerlessness and national identity rather than pure ratings.

It reminds me of another project I heard of while I was at the AWID conference in Thailand—Sexto Sentido, a show intended to infuse values of equality into deeply patriarchal and traditional Nicaragua. Sexto Sentido is (stay with me here)… a feminist soap opera. That isn’t its claim to fame in Nicaragua, of course—in a country where most soaps are Mexican imports, this show is the first soap opera indigenous to Nicaragua. If I remember correctly, it gets about 70% of TV viewership in the country.

In the case of Sexto Sentido, plotlines deal with the lives of a group of young people and the complex social issues they face. This includes storylines about violence against women, sexuality, and self-identity. The theme song starts out, “I want to have control of my life….” Some episodes end with a number to call if, for instance, you’re a victim of domestic violence and want out.

People wonder whether such efforts have any hope of creating a more just and caring world. When I e-mailed this morning’s article to David, he replied pragmatically, “But will it make a difference?” Will many Nigerians, with constant examples of oppressive and violent social structures, learn peace from a half-hour TV show? Will Nicaraguan men stop abusing their wives because of what they saw on Sexto Sentido?

David is right when he contends that we won’t see the change we hope for overnight. We already have deeply ingrained messages relating to violence, gender, race, and other issues. American kids play video games like Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, where male characters can engage in raunchy sex with a half-dressed woman and then kill her with a golf club. But if television, music and video games can influence us toward violence and sexism, why can’t they also help turn us away from it?

In fact, shows driven by peace and equality are already making an impact. Nicaraguan schoolchildren interviewed after watching Sexto Sentido say it taught them that it wasn’t okay for their father to hit their mother. Actors in The Station describe how they’ve managed to come together across ethnic divisions to create the show.

Jesus tells us that God’s realm is like yeast that a woman mixes into the dough until it is leavened, like the mustard seed that grows into a large bush. Scripture also tells us to avoid the bad yeast of malice and evil, the Pharisee teachings of hatred. So what are we watching, anyway?

It may take a while for the yeast of peace to work into the dough of the world. It may take some time for the seeds of equality and respect to grow. Then again, we’re still talking about the work of that small group of folks hanging out in some Roman backwater 2000 years ago.

“And again he said, ‘To what should I compare the kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.’” --Luke 13:20-21

Kelsey