Aligning the stars in East Los High: How authentic characters and storylines can translate into real-life changes through transmedia edutainment

The present article analyses the creative production processes and audience reception aspects of East Los High, an exemplary Hollywood-based edutainment initiative that purposely leveraged transmedia storytelling to address highly salient issues—teen pregnancy and reproductive health — for Latinx youth in the United States. We investigate how East Los High’s creative team and subject-matter specialists aligned the transmedia narrative—comprising of an edutainment web series and nine digital extensions—with its social objectives. We do so by drawing on a treasure trove of data sources—personal interviews with the creators, writers, and executive producers of East Los High; archival analysis of various project materials; a web-based audience survey of 202 viewers with an in-depth qualitative and quantitative analysis of responses to the open-ended questions. Our analysis suggests that the creative process to develop richly-textured characters and plot lines in East Los High was guided by an uncompromising attention to information accuracy and cultural authenticity and accomplished its purpose of being perceived as a programme by, of, and for Latinx Americans.