In the media, particularly television and film, there is currently not enough diversity to equally represent every race, gender, and ability.  Lately there has been a lot of focus on the Black Lives Matter and women’s movements that our media should reflect. It is looking like we have become a more violent world with police brutality and such which is why the Black Lives Matter movement has come about. These movements have become so popular because they are directly fighting against violence towards minorities and having diversity in all aspects of life could be the first step to make this better.  Diversity has become a really big issue that a lot of people are talking about right now, especially with the recent election drama.  The women’s rights movements really started around the recent election because of how much the government will be changing with the recent election of President Trump. These movements really just come from fear of safety and livelihood, which diversity and education about diversity can help. Now it’s also not just about different races of people, but also different genders, sexually orientations, and even disabilities; more types of people should have a voice in the television and movie industries.  Men and women both deserve opportunities, as well as people with different sexual orientations, races, and disabilities.  

There are three general eras of race in show business.  The first is: “Humiliation” (1905-42) when grossly demeaning terms like “coon” and vile treatment were “normal”.  The second is the protest era (1942-49), when there were more voices that spoke out about the problems.  Then the last era is: the struggle for equality (1949-2016), when groups began confronting the absence of people of color in key above- and below-the-line fields (Gaydos, Gray).  Throughout history diversity has had quite a hard time getting into the limelight.  The very first movie to star an African-American actor, Josephine Baker in Siren of the Tropics, wasn’t until 1927, while the first television show to star a black actor, Ethel Waters on the Ethel Waters Show, was in 1939.   It would seem that since it has been almost a century since the first African-American was featured on the big screen there would be diversity, but that is not really the case.  We certainly have come a long way since these firsts, but there are still races, genders, and abilities that are unrepresented; while white actors have over 75% of the share.  Also, even when black actors are given the opportunity to be in a television show or movie they are only being cast as “black males” or “athletic types” with no real dimension to the character.  But this is even spilling into the journalist community that is still mainly white, middle-to-upper class, and college educated men, which can put off an elitist vibe to anyone that isn’t a white, middle-to-upper class, or college educated man (Pelet).

This is also not just a race problem, but a gender one as well.  Currently “Men outnumber women two to one on television” and once women hit age 50, they basically disappear from the limelight (Martinson).  And only recently shows that have come out like Empire, Black-ish, The Fosters and How to Get Away with Murder have been very successful with their more diverse cast.  These shows include other races, genders, and sexualities that have gone unnoticed until now.   It would be very beneficial to the media and the people watching to feature a more diverse cast because of how well received these recent shows have been and how much the controversy around the whole topic would die down if it were to happen.

This problem is not just in the regular television shows and movies, but also in news broadcastings.  “The minority breakdown at non-Spanish language TV stations, per the survey, is 11.4 percent African-American, 6.7 percent Hispanic, 2.7 percent Asian American and 0.4 percent Native American” (Shepard). Of course, with the majority of newscasters still being white males. But even when the numbers started to grow, there was a halt in 2008 when the 

the recession affected these minorities; largely because of the “last hired, first fired” rule. This issue matters because diversity is helps business. “If the audience doesn’t see itself reflected in news stories, then minorities often think their interests are being ignored, misinterpreted, distorted or undervalued” (Shepard). 

Because this is such a well know topic there are groups that have held campaigns or put in place certain incentives to get more minorities cast.  Such as a campaign done by Sir Lenny Henry, where “the BBC pledged to increase the number of black, Asian, and minority ethic people on air by more than 40%” and to “double the number of senior managers from those groups who work at the corporation by 2020” (Martinson).  Also, a joint industry campaign, called Project Diamond, was launched in 2015 to monitor the diversity on the BBC, as well as other British television channels, but this has campaign has yet to really get started (Martinson).  Currently there is a “Diversity in Casting” incentive, as well as others, that provide financial incentives and it seems this is the only way to get the attention of the of the casting committees.  There are several groups that have been trying to get diversity in the media, but it seems that there still isn’t enough.  As of February 2015, there were incentive programs that existed in 39 of the 50 states and have been a benefit to those states’ economies.  There should be more incentives put into place though to try to get more producing companies to hire more diverse actors.  “Since entertainment is the United States’ number two export” it should be more representative of the people in the US. Incentives work in basically every other market, as long as money is involved, so why can’t it be applied to the media (Guay). 

The unpopular opinion that there could be too much diversity in the media already, does exist. In 2015, several pilots came out with quite a diverse cast that it seemed, to one author, that it could be too much. “Instead of opening the field for actors of any race to compete for any role in a color-blind manner, there has been a significant number of parts designated as ethnic this year, making them off-limits for Caucasian actors”. A talent representative states that he just has to fill his quota for pilot shows: ‘basically 50% of the roles in a pilot have to be ethnic’. Apparently, during this pilot season in particular, Caucasian actors were turned away quite often for big roles. How to Get Away with Murder, Black-ish, Fresh Off the Boat, Jane the Virgin and Empire, were part of this pilot season that seemingly boomed with ethnicity. When this article came out in March 2015 it got a lot of flak for “complaining” that white actors did have their equal opportunities for the new television shows; especially with the title Pilots 2015: The Year of Ethnic Castings—About Time or Too Much of a Good Thing?, which has since been changed to omit About Time or Too Much of a Good Thing? (Andreeva).

Although, this article that served as a counter to the argument, also brought up an important point; this point being that yes there should be diversity, but television and movies should try to be historically accurate if they are portraying real life events.  An ABC drama The Advocate, which was based on former CAA agent Byrdie Lifson-Pompan and Dr. Valerie Ulene, who launched a healthcare consulting company, cast one woman as white and the other black. But a photo, provided in the article, shows that there is probably a very slim chance a black woman would have been in the Police Academy because every woman shown is white. It is understandable that a television show, or possibly movie, that is supposed to be historically accurate would have the correct race, but the argument that there is too much diversity in this particular pilot season is not a very common opinion (Andreeva). 

On the opposite end of the spectrum for diversity, the 2015 Oscars received criticism for being “too white”.  “Every 2015 Oscar nominated actor is white” and “every director and writer nominated is male”.  This stirred up the #OscarssoWhite on Twitter, but also gave the Oscars some much wanted press. Dr. Ali Mattu uses the 2015 Oscars to explain why diversity in the media matters in a way that most of the people on YouTube can relate to. He uses an example of “type casting” when it comes to race. Because Dr. Mattu is South Asian, his race is usually cast as terrorists, computer programmers, convenience store clerks, and scientists/doctors. But a white male can be a soldier, superhero, entrepreneur, millionaire, dad, etc. With this he ties in the issue of stereotypes and stereotype threats, which psychologists explain that “when you create a situation that makes you afraid of fulfilling a stereotype, it changes your behavior for the worse” (Mattu).  For example, “the stereotype: girls are bad at math, the stereotype threat: ask about gender on a math test and girls end up doing worse” (Mattu).  But the only way to “fix” this way of thinking and stereotyping, are counter stereotypes which the media would be able to show if they cast more diverse actors. For example, we have seen great strides in the LGBTQ+ community partly because the media have shown more characters in those roles so the idea of gay rights is not as “out there” as is was in the ‘90s. He also brings up the fact that more diverse casts for television shows and movies lead to better ratings and more money made in the box office, that was mentioned earlier in this essay (Mattu). 

One form of media that seems to maybe have gotten this whole diversity thing right is the music industry. Because there are so many different genres and outlet of music there are plenty of opportunities for people to get their name out there. Also, singing talent has nothing to do with age, gender, race, sexuality, language, or religion, anyone with a voice is able to sing. Also, music is always evolving so there is a chance for new artists to get into the industry. Websites like SoundCloud and YouTube have made it even easier for people to be discovered as well because anyone can share their creations for anyone who wants to listen. It did take some time for the industry to get to where it is today, one of the people that was very influential in pushing boundaries was the Mexican singer Selena, who brought Latin music to America. Music also builds on itself, so old sounds can still be incorporated into the popular music. For example, Bruno Mars’ new album 24K Magic has lots of ‘80s and ‘90s funk and R&B. Also, Rihanna’s song Work has a strong Caribbean sound called ska. There was even the “British invasion” when the Beatles became very popular in America, and there are still many singers that are popular in the states that are not American, like Ed Sheeran, Justin Bieber, Shania Twain, Nicki Minaj, etc. (Holley). Hopefully this diversity can spread into more outlets of the media other than just this one. 

One type of television program that may not be as thought about in this topic, but is still just as important, is the news.  Just because news broadcastings are not the most popular thing on television, doesn’t mean that diversity doesn’t count for the news room.  Some might even say it is more important to have a more diverse new room because the news is supposed to be the most unbiased, equally represented form of media out there, so the news casters should reflect that as well.  Even though minorities make up 37.02 percent of the U.S. population, there are no newsrooms that match this percentage.  The breakdown for minorities on news related television  stations, according to the survey at Hofstra University, is 11.4 percent African-American, 6.7 percent Hispanic, 2.7 percent Asian American and 0.4 percent Native American.  That leaves almost 80 percent to be covered by white people.  This matters because “if the audience doesn’t see itself reflected in news stories, then minorities often think their interests are being ignored, misinterpreted, distorted or undervalued” (Shepard).

Diversity in the media matters because no one wants to feel they or their interests are being undervalued. Everyone deserves to have equal representation in the media because that’s how our world is, there is diversity and lots of it, which needs to be reflected. Every race, gender, and ability is not currently at an equal representation in the popular media, such as television and movies. It has certainly gotten better through the years starting with the first movie to star a black actress in 1927, but there is still a long way to go. Media should take a look at the improvement the music industry has done in the way of diversity because strides have been made and all different types of people are represented in music. Also, even though it may be an unpopular opinion, it still exists that some people think the recent television shows have too much of a diverse cast. It shouldn’t be such a big deal anymore, this should just be the norm that we are all used to. If little by little, the news rooms, television shows, big movies start introducing a more diverse cast, it won’t be such a shock to anyone. Now obviously these things take time, but it is looking like the path is there, the media just needs to get moving on it. 
