Sunday, February 28, 2016
Thursday, February 25, 2016
Diversity in Hollywood (or, more appropriately, the lack thereof)
Source URL: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hollywood-studios-whitewashed-given-failing-868097
Hollywood Studios "Whitewashed," Given Failing Diversity Grades in New Study
The USC report also finds that an "epidemic of invisibility" runs top to bottom through the industry for women, minorities and LGBT people.
In one of the most exhaustive and damning reports on diversity in Hollywood, a new study finds that the films and television produced by major media companies are "whitewashed," and that an "epidemic of invisibility" runs top to bottom through the industry for women, minorities and LGBT people.
A study to be released Monday by the Media, Diversity and Social Change Initiative at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism offers one of the most wide-ranging examinations of the film and television industries, including a pointed "inclusivity index" of 10 major media companies — from Disney to Netflix — that gives a failing grade to every movie studio and most TV makers.
Coming just days before an Academy Awards where a second straight year of all-white acting nominees has enflamed an industry-wide crisis, the report offers a new barrage of sobering statistics that further evidence a deep discrepancy between Hollywood and the American population it entertains, in gender, race and ethnicity.
"The prequel to OscarsSoWhite is HollywoodSoWhite," said Stacy L. Smith, a USC professor and one of the study's authors, in an interview. "We don't have a diversity problem. We have an inclusion crisis."
The study, titled the "Comprehensive Annenberg Report on Diversity," examined the 109 films released by major studios (including art-house divisions) in 2014 and 305 scripted, first-run TV and digital series across 31 networks and streaming services that aired from September 2014 to August 2015. More than 11,000 speaking characters were analyzed for gender, racial and ethnic representation and LGBT status. Some 10,000 directors, writers and show creators were examined, as was the gender of more than 1,500 executives.
The portrait is one of pervasive underrepresentation, no matter the media platform, from CEOs to minor characters. "Overall, the landscape of media content is still largely whitewashed," the study concludes.
In the 414 studied films and series, only a third of speaking characters were female, and only 28.3 percent were from minority groups — about 10 percent less than the makeup of the U.S. population. Characters 40 years or older skew heavily male across film and TV: 74.3 percent male to 25.7 percent female.
Just 2 percent of speaking characters were LGBT-identified. Among the 11,306 speaking characters studied, only seven were transgendered (and four were from the same series).
"When we start to step back to see this larger ecology, I think we see a picture of exclusion," said Smith. "And it doesn't match the norms of the population of the United States."
Behind the camera, the discrepancy is even greater. Directors overall were 87 percent white. Broadcast TV directors (90.4 percent white) were the least diverse.
Just 15.2 percent of directors, 28.9 percent of writers and 22.6 percent of series creators were female. In film, the gender gap is greatest: Only 3.4 percent of the films studied were directed by women, and only two directors out of the 109 were black women: Ava DuVernay ("Selma") and Amma Asante ("Belle").
Following a request made in May by the American Civil Liberties Union (which cited previous USC studies, as well as those by UCLA and the Directors Guild in claiming women have been "systematically excluded" from directing jobs), the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission last year began investigating gender discrimination in Hollywood.
The federal investigation is just one element of growing scrutiny for the industry. But for protesters, finding a target for what some consider a systematic problem isn't easy. Even many of those, like Spike Lee, who have criticized the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, have insisted the issue goes far deeper than Oscar nominees. When academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs recently announced dramatic steps to diversify the overwhelmingly white and male film academy, she said: "The academy is going to lead, and not wait for the industry to catch up."
USC's study, which the school has been publishing in various forms for the last 10 years, also seeks to add a new metric in the conversation. The "inclusivity index" is a report card for the performances of 21st Century Fox, CBS, NBC Universal, Sony, the Walt Disney Co., Time Warner, Viacom, Amazon, Hulu and Netflix. Those companies encompass all the broadcast networks, most major cable channels, all of the major movie studios and three of the dominant streaming services.
Each was rated by their percentage of female, minority and LGBT characters; and of female writers and directors. None of the six major studios rated better than 20 percent overall; Time Warner fared poorest of all with a score of zero. The report concludes that the film industry "still functions as a straight, white, boy's club."
Disney, Sony, Paramount, Fox, Universal and Warner Bros. didn't immediate comment Sunday night.
Some of the same companies, however, scored better when their TV and digital offerings were evaluated. Disney, the CW, Amazon and Hulu all scored 65 percent and above.
"When we turn to see where the problem is better or worse, the apex to this whole endeavor is: Everyone in film is failing, all of the companies investigated," said Smith. "They're impervious to change. But there are pockets of promise in television. There is a focus that change is possible. The very companies that are inclusive — Disney, CW, Hulu, Amazon to some degree — those companies, if they're producing and distributing motion pictures, can do this. We now have evidence that they can, and they can thrive."
USC researchers also, for the first time, added analysis of those 10 companies' executives. Researches didn't have racial or ethnic background information, but found that women represent about 20 percent of corporate boards, chief executives and executive management teams.
"As prestige or power of the title increases, we see fewer women at the top," said Katherine Pieper, who co-authored the study with Smith and Marc Choueiti. "Film still has a prestige to it, so we see fewer women filling those positions."
The research offers the chance for comparison between mediums. Do streaming services adhere to the established patterns of traditional television or deviate from them?
In some cases, they do, but in many, they don't. Netflix (20 percent on the inclusion index) scored about the same as NBC Universal, CBS and Fox. There were far fewer female directors working in digital series (11.8 percent) than in broadcast (17.1 percent), in the shows studied. Broadcast, cable and steaming series also all revel in sexualized female characters and nudity more than movies do.
But some of the study's most troubling finds are simply absences. Roughly 50 percent of the examined content didn't feature one Asian or Asian-American character; 20 percent didn't include one black character. Researchers argue for change beyond "tokenism," including making target goals public and creating a system of checks and balances in storytelling decisions.
"People are still erased. It's 2016 and it's time for a change," said Smith. "We've laid out concrete actionable steps because we don't want to do this again in 10 years."
A study to be released Monday by the Media, Diversity and Social Change Initiative at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism offers one of the most wide-ranging examinations of the film and television industries, including a pointed "inclusivity index" of 10 major media companies — from Disney to Netflix — that gives a failing grade to every movie studio and most TV makers.
Coming just days before an Academy Awards where a second straight year of all-white acting nominees has enflamed an industry-wide crisis, the report offers a new barrage of sobering statistics that further evidence a deep discrepancy between Hollywood and the American population it entertains, in gender, race and ethnicity.
"The prequel to OscarsSoWhite is HollywoodSoWhite," said Stacy L. Smith, a USC professor and one of the study's authors, in an interview. "We don't have a diversity problem. We have an inclusion crisis."
The study, titled the "Comprehensive Annenberg Report on Diversity," examined the 109 films released by major studios (including art-house divisions) in 2014 and 305 scripted, first-run TV and digital series across 31 networks and streaming services that aired from September 2014 to August 2015. More than 11,000 speaking characters were analyzed for gender, racial and ethnic representation and LGBT status. Some 10,000 directors, writers and show creators were examined, as was the gender of more than 1,500 executives.
The portrait is one of pervasive underrepresentation, no matter the media platform, from CEOs to minor characters. "Overall, the landscape of media content is still largely whitewashed," the study concludes.
In the 414 studied films and series, only a third of speaking characters were female, and only 28.3 percent were from minority groups — about 10 percent less than the makeup of the U.S. population. Characters 40 years or older skew heavily male across film and TV: 74.3 percent male to 25.7 percent female.
Just 2 percent of speaking characters were LGBT-identified. Among the 11,306 speaking characters studied, only seven were transgendered (and four were from the same series).
"When we start to step back to see this larger ecology, I think we see a picture of exclusion," said Smith. "And it doesn't match the norms of the population of the United States."
Behind the camera, the discrepancy is even greater. Directors overall were 87 percent white. Broadcast TV directors (90.4 percent white) were the least diverse.
Just 15.2 percent of directors, 28.9 percent of writers and 22.6 percent of series creators were female. In film, the gender gap is greatest: Only 3.4 percent of the films studied were directed by women, and only two directors out of the 109 were black women: Ava DuVernay ("Selma") and Amma Asante ("Belle").
Following a request made in May by the American Civil Liberties Union (which cited previous USC studies, as well as those by UCLA and the Directors Guild in claiming women have been "systematically excluded" from directing jobs), the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission last year began investigating gender discrimination in Hollywood.
The federal investigation is just one element of growing scrutiny for the industry. But for protesters, finding a target for what some consider a systematic problem isn't easy. Even many of those, like Spike Lee, who have criticized the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, have insisted the issue goes far deeper than Oscar nominees. When academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs recently announced dramatic steps to diversify the overwhelmingly white and male film academy, she said: "The academy is going to lead, and not wait for the industry to catch up."
USC's study, which the school has been publishing in various forms for the last 10 years, also seeks to add a new metric in the conversation. The "inclusivity index" is a report card for the performances of 21st Century Fox, CBS, NBC Universal, Sony, the Walt Disney Co., Time Warner, Viacom, Amazon, Hulu and Netflix. Those companies encompass all the broadcast networks, most major cable channels, all of the major movie studios and three of the dominant streaming services.
Each was rated by their percentage of female, minority and LGBT characters; and of female writers and directors. None of the six major studios rated better than 20 percent overall; Time Warner fared poorest of all with a score of zero. The report concludes that the film industry "still functions as a straight, white, boy's club."
Disney, Sony, Paramount, Fox, Universal and Warner Bros. didn't immediate comment Sunday night.
Some of the same companies, however, scored better when their TV and digital offerings were evaluated. Disney, the CW, Amazon and Hulu all scored 65 percent and above.
"When we turn to see where the problem is better or worse, the apex to this whole endeavor is: Everyone in film is failing, all of the companies investigated," said Smith. "They're impervious to change. But there are pockets of promise in television. There is a focus that change is possible. The very companies that are inclusive — Disney, CW, Hulu, Amazon to some degree — those companies, if they're producing and distributing motion pictures, can do this. We now have evidence that they can, and they can thrive."
USC researchers also, for the first time, added analysis of those 10 companies' executives. Researches didn't have racial or ethnic background information, but found that women represent about 20 percent of corporate boards, chief executives and executive management teams.
"As prestige or power of the title increases, we see fewer women at the top," said Katherine Pieper, who co-authored the study with Smith and Marc Choueiti. "Film still has a prestige to it, so we see fewer women filling those positions."
The research offers the chance for comparison between mediums. Do streaming services adhere to the established patterns of traditional television or deviate from them?
In some cases, they do, but in many, they don't. Netflix (20 percent on the inclusion index) scored about the same as NBC Universal, CBS and Fox. There were far fewer female directors working in digital series (11.8 percent) than in broadcast (17.1 percent), in the shows studied. Broadcast, cable and steaming series also all revel in sexualized female characters and nudity more than movies do.
But some of the study's most troubling finds are simply absences. Roughly 50 percent of the examined content didn't feature one Asian or Asian-American character; 20 percent didn't include one black character. Researchers argue for change beyond "tokenism," including making target goals public and creating a system of checks and balances in storytelling decisions.
"People are still erased. It's 2016 and it's time for a change," said Smith. "We've laid out concrete actionable steps because we don't want to do this again in 10 years."
Links:
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Monday, February 22, 2016
TV's Influence on the Developing Intellect- Delaney
TV's Influence on the Developing Intellect:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2Dv4MQMdbN4OHNIdmNhQVVmNlE/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2Dv4MQMdbN4OHNIdmNhQVVmNlE/view?usp=sharing
Media and Young Children's Learning
Media and Young Children's Learning
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2Dv4MQMdbN4Tzh4dXphTjJjdnM/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2Dv4MQMdbN4Tzh4dXphTjJjdnM/view?usp=sharing
Media Portrayals of Minorities- Olivia
Prime-time TV Portrayals of Minorities and Their Associations with National Attitudes:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2Dv4MQMdbN4YzM2bkhKRnUyOWc/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2Dv4MQMdbN4YzM2bkhKRnUyOWc/view?usp=sharing
From Newsweek: (Media Narrative of Black Men in America)
THE MEDIA NARRATIVE OF BLACK MEN IN AMERICA IS ALL WRONG
More black men are going to college than ever before in our nation’s history. Black men make up the largest share of people of color in the U.S. Armed Forces. And black fathers living with their children are more likely to take on everyday child care duties than fathers in other demographic groups.
Yet many portrayals of black men in the media continue to focus on the negative. Unfortunately, these outdated stereotypes neglect the breadth and depth of the lives of American black men, who have many roles—including father, husband, mentor and community leader, just to name a few.
President Barack Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative recently celebrated its one-year anniversary. The program, designed to combat the persistent gaps faced by men and boys of color, has made great progress, leading to partnerships with communities, corporate and philanthropic leaders and federal agencies. All of these partnerships are working to expand opportunities and tear down barriers that hamper the likelihood of success for men and boys of color.
Programs such as this are essential to continue the momentum that black men have gained in education, employment and other indicators of success. It’s high time to focus on the real state of black men in the United States.
Looking closely at the facts, it’s clear that black men play an overwhelmingly positive role in their families and communities. Black men ages 18 to 24, for example, are closing the enrollment gap for postsecondary education. Today, 33.9 percent of black males in this age group attend some form of higher education, compared with 41 percent of the entire population within this age group—an increase from 1988, when only 18.5 percent of black males were enrolled in some form of postsecondary education; this compares with 30.3 percent of the overall population.
As of 2014, the share of black males ages 25 and over who have obtained at least a bachelor’s degree has more than tripled, rising to 20.4 percent from 6.3 percent in 1976. Meanwhile, the share of the entire population with a bachelor’s degree grew from 14.7 percent to 32 percentover the same time period.
The rise in college enrollment rates for black men goes hand in hand with rapidly declining high school dropout rates for black men ages 16 to 24. The dropout rate for black men within this age range fell from 21.2 percent in 1976 to 8.1 percent in 2012, while the national dropout rate fell from 14 percent to 6 percent over this period.
Like the negative stereotype of the black high school dropout, the image of the neglectful, absent black father also requires scrutiny. While there are a significant amount of female-headed households in the black community, research has shown that black fathers take an active role in the lives of their children.
Of fathers who live with their children, black men are more likely to be intimately involved in their lives. For example, black men living with their children are more likely to bathe, dress, diaper or assist their child in the bathroom than fathers in all other demographic groups. Additionally, a survey shows that black fathers living with their children are more likely to help them with homework on a daily basis.
When it comes to serving the security needs of this country, black men make up the largest share of people of color serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. People of color make up approximately 28 percent of military personnel, and black men make up 13 percent of our nation’s troops. They are the largest share of people of color who serve on active duty as officers in our Armed Forces.
Of course, we must not gloss over the fact that far too many black men continue to come into contact with the criminal justice system. Of black men born in 2001, one in three have a chance of being incarcerated during their lifetime, while Hispanic men’s odds are one in six. White men’s odds stand at one in 17.
Yet there is some hope. Although people of color, especially black men, are overrepresented in our prison population, the number of black men in college is almost double the number of black men in jail.
Black men also face higher unemployment rates than all other demographics. As of 2014, the unemployment rate of black men over age 16 was 12.2 percent, while the total population ages 16 and over had an unemployment rate of 6.2 percent. While there have been great improvements in the employment situation of black men since unemployment peaked during the Great Recession, black men have not recovered nearly as fast as the rest of the population.
In 2009, the unemployment rate for the entire population ages 16 and over was 9.3 percent, while the unemployment rate for black men ages 16 and over was 17.5 percent. Furthermore, median weekly income for black men continues to lag behind their white and Asian-American counterparts.
The disproportionate unemployment rate and unequal pay of black men persist as significant obstacles toward achieving a more equitable economy and society.
While the consequences of slavery and Jim Crow continue to plague black men and the black community as a whole, there has been great improvement in terms of education, employment and income, among other areas. Many of these achievements have been supported by progressive policies that have helped lower unemployment, reduce poverty and further educational attainment. Policies such as instituting universal pre-K, requiring paid sick leave, increasing the minimum wage and inspiring educational and employment success through the My Brother’s Keeper initiative are essential to a more equitable society.
Despite these impressive improvements in various indicators of success, the media continues to highlight a negative narrative that associates black men with violence, crime and poverty. It’s time for the media to report the true story—not the outdated stereotype.
Jamal Hagler is the Special Assistant for Progress 2050 at the Center for American Progress. This article first appeared on the Center for American Progress website.
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