Assinado, Alice : a função social da ficção

Abstract

Generalist audiovisual fiction products, such as telenovelas and series, are targeted to a heterogeneous and wide audience and a great power of mobilization and impact on society is registered. This is a topic that has fascinated educators, due to the great potential for disseminating information. In the early 90s, Marcio Schiavo built a production method that would make it possible to “systematize” the insertion of socio-educational scenes in telenovelas or series. This method is now known as social merchandising and aims to optimize the social function of a fictional product, thereby expanding its social impact. To the fictional narrative of an audiovisual content, educational scenes are added that aim to promote dialogue and positive development of a certain social issue in the public sphere. This production method, inserted in the Entertainment-Education chain, has as main objectives the change of attitudes and the adoption of new behaviors, but also the expansion of the social agenda and the creation of opportunities for participation of all social classes. This project aims to create and develop a work of fiction that integrates the theme of Mental Health, with special emphasis on Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).Mental disorders are one of the main causes of disability and morbidity in society, in numbers we can say that of the 10 main causes of disability, 5 are mental disorders. Furthermore, OCD is one of the most common psychiatric disorders and affects about 2.3% of the world population at some point in life, a number that grows to 4.4% in Portugal. With this in mind, the present project aims to contribute to the dissemination of information and the deconstruction of the social stigma related to OCD, as well as the diffusion of the value of Mental Health in the quality of life of individuals, and for that purpose a transmedia universe was created, with several entrance doors, the main one being a series of fiction.

Date of Award	10 Feb 2021
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Catarina Duff Burnay (Supervisor)