Lack Of Diversity In Entertainment
Within the last semester we have discussed many concepts in communication. A concept I would like to reflect on is cultural communication. More specifically, discrimination and why it is still a widespread issue in entertainment. I have used a study about diversity in entertainment done by USC’s School of Communication and Journalism to back my following argument. The lack of diversity in Hollywood proves racial and gender discrimination is still extremely prevalent. I would like begin this discussion with reflecting on gender discrimination in entertainment. According to the 2016 “Inclusion or Invisibility” study done by USC’s School of Communication and Journalism, less than 29 percent of directors, writers and series creators are women
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Girls and women are less than 1/3 of all speaking characters, and comprise a small percentage [1.9 percent] of directors and writers of the major studio and art house releases of 2014. Television/digital series are more balanced. Girls and women comprise 37.1% of characters and 42% of series regulars….A similar analysis was conducted for writer gender. Across 6,421 writers, a full 71.1% were male and 28.9% were female. This means that for every one female screenwriter there were 2.5 male screenwriters.” (Inclusion or Invisibility Pg. 16) A common argument against this statistic is that there is merely “not enough female talent”. However, this is arguably a lazy fallacy considering the number of women studying film in universities is nearly the same as men. According to Susan Sandler, a faculty advisor at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, at least 50 percent of the students currently enrolled in NYU’s film and television program are women. With this many women currently working towards their dream, it is easy to wonder why they still only make up a very small percentage of such a booming industry. Gender discrimination has long been an issue in entertainment, but I would like to also discuss issues with racial discrimination. As mentioned earlier, the Inclusion or Invisibility study found that women and minority groups make up “less than 35 percent of speaking characters in movies and scripted series.” I would like to expand on this topic by reflecting on their findings when assessing the racial/ethnic identity of the subjects in TV/film that were
Girls and women are less than 1/3 of all speaking characters, and comprise a small percentage [1.9 percent] of directors and writers of the major studio and art house releases of 2014. Television/digital series are more balanced. Girls and women comprise 37.1% of characters and 42% of series regulars….A similar analysis was conducted for writer gender. Across 6,421 writers, a full 71.1% were male and 28.9% were female. This means that for every one female screenwriter there were 2.5 male screenwriters.” (Inclusion or Invisibility Pg. 16) A common argument against this statistic is that there is merely “not enough female talent”. However, this is arguably a lazy fallacy considering the number of women studying film in universities is nearly the same as men. According to Susan Sandler, a faculty advisor at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, at least 50 percent of the students currently enrolled in NYU’s film and television program are women. With this many women currently working towards their dream, it is easy to wonder why they still only make up a very small percentage of such a booming industry. Gender discrimination has long been an issue in entertainment, but I would like to also discuss issues with racial discrimination. As mentioned earlier, the Inclusion or Invisibility study found that women and minority groups make up “less than 35 percent of speaking characters in movies and scripted series.” I would like to expand on this topic by reflecting on their findings when assessing the racial/ethnic identity of the subjects in TV/film that were