Every Saturday night, millions of people tune in to Saturday Night Live, which is more commonly known as SNL. The show entails hilarious skits done by very talented comedians who parody current events in politics and pop culture. A recent article from The New York Times reported on the so called "color controversy" that sparked as a result of cast member Keenan Thompson's statement that black women aren't "ready" to be on SNL. This sparked reactions from bloggers, actors and actresses, and fans all over the media. This also shed light on the fact that SNL does not feature many black women on the show, or any women of color for that matter. In SNL's history, beginning from its premiere in 1975, only 3 black women have been cast members on the show. This lack of women of color leaves a deficiency for SNL when portraying certain characters such as Michelle Obama or Beyonce because they either use a black man to dress up as a woman or leave out the character as a whole. It is true that comedy historically has always been a sort of "boys club" as with other areas such as CEOs and in Academia, but with so many great comedians who happen to be women of color there should be no excuse as to why there aren't more featured on the show. Surely, the show IS "ready" for more black women and Thompson's remark is as absurd as can be.
Sports media has become increasingly popular over the years among both boys and girls. Sports radio, television, magazines and websites all have a large audience keep track with the latest in sports of all varieties. There has been some progress in the diversity in sports media but overall it is still disappointing. An article on SportsBusinessDaily.com about the lack of diversity in sports media recently reported the statistics and numbers on this statement. Racial hiring practices by sports media received an average grade of C+, while gender hiring practices were given an extremely low grade of an F. Another chart composed of percentages of white people in key positions from 2010 to 2012. This chart revealed, that although there was a decrease in the amount of white people between these years, indicating an increase in the hiring of people of color, this decrease was very low with only a maximum of a 4% decrease, and overall the percentage of white people holding key positions remained at the 80% to 90% range. Another interesting point made in this article was the fact that ESPN was the main source raising these percentages because of their relatively diverse hiring practices. For example, out of the 35 columnists who were women, 23 worked for ESPN. Because sports media does appeal to a wide range of demographics in their audience, it would only be fitting for them to have more diverse hiring practices and more diversity in their columnists and broadcasters. The articles suggests these sports media corporations to employ the Rooney Rule that originated in the NFL. This would require at least one person of color to be interviewed for every job opening. Hopefully these numbers will increase in the near future, promoting a more relatable and diverse group in sports media.
These days, video games are extremely popular in all ages beginning from children who are 6 years old way into their 20s. These video games definitely have a very strong impact on the youth of this generation and influence their beliefs and ideals. This is why it is extremely important to have racial and gender diversity in video games to banish stereotypes and promote equality. Although commonly thought otherwise, women comprise 45% of the entire game playing population and also take up 46% of the most frequent buyers of video games (according to this article). The question remains then, why are women rarely, if ever, featured as main characters in video games. If women give video game companies almost half of their business then they should have equal representation in these games and should not be stereotyped sex symbols or helpless princesses in need of saving. As for racial diversity, video games lack it just as much. In this article, they state that African Americans between the ages of 8 and 18 play video games 30 minutes more per day than white youth, and Hispanics between these ages play 10 minutes more per day than their white counterparts. However they still only take up a small minority of characters in video games. Professor Dimitri Williams at the University of Southern California conducted a study and found that less than 3% of characters in video games were distinctly hispanic, all of which were unplayable. Meanwhile, Native Americans and biracial characters were not featured at all, and African Americans took up 10.74% of characters, all of whom were portrayed as athletes or gangsters, the common African American stereotype. The diversity in video games is extremely low considering minorities make up more than half of the video game audience. This is unfair because it only continues to perpetuate stereotypes and keep minorities out of media, therefore promoting bigotry and close-mindedness within our youth.
We study the media all the time, observing diversity in media outlets such as radio, television, magazines, newspapers and many more. However, taking a closer look at all these media sources makes me wonder who is behind it all running the show. A recent survey released by the FCC in November of 2012 reveals that whites, and white males in particular, take up the majority of media owners in the nation. As of 2011, 69.4% of the nation's commercial broadcast stations are white males, which is greater than the 63.4% from 2009. Meanwhile, some minority ownership decreased including Black ownership going from 1% to .7% and Asian ownership falling from .8% to .5%. On the bright side, Women and Latino ownership did rise although not by more than 1%. Same is with radio ownership, where 80% of AM and FM radio owners are white, and 70% of them are white men. With the reveal of these uneven numbers in media ownership, I can't help but think, how does this effect what we hear and see in our modern media? Maybe the reason we lack diversity in our media correlates with the fact that we lack diversity in the CEO's and heads of these media companies.
These days, television news broadcasts, whether they be during the morning, day or night, have a large audience who is interested in everything from local current events and national politics. The topics discussed change from day to day but I noticed recently that the people delivering the news and the guests featured on the shows are mostly white men. It seems like over and over we continue to see the same white males delivering our news and there are recent studies that do prove this. According to this article a recent study found that a majority of nightly news guests were overwhelmingly white males. Women, African Americans, Latinos, and other people of color are underrepresented as news guests in most news shows. Cable news was the worst of other channels, where they had the largest amount of white guests relative to other minorities, 83% to be specific. Other news channels such as MSNBC and CNN did have a bit more diversity, but overall still featured a vast majority of white males than women and other minorities. Considering their representation in the US population, men are greatly overrepresented on cable news by double! However, when it comes to white women, and nonwhite men, and nonwhite women, they are vastly underrepresented in cable news compared to their representation in the US population. These statistics clearly demonstrate that there is something off with the type of people being featured on news channels. As long as white men are a majority on the news, they will continue to put out patriarchal and racist messages to the United States and hinder our progress as a nation. We need to get more women and minorities on the news in order to promote equal rights and representation for all!
Last Sunday, September 22, 2013 marked the 65th Annual Primetime Emmy awards, one of the biggest award shows on television, honoring the best TV shows and series of the year. When all the glitz and glamour eventually quelled, the main question about the award show arose: Was it diverse enough? According to Ellen Pompeo it was not. Pompeo prides on the fact that she is a part of a very diverse cast of Grey's Anatomy and was therefore "really disappointed" in the show. She felt that she "didn't see any diversity in the Emmys at all" and they show "felt dated." She even added that "the dance number was embarrassing" adding that she didn't "see one person of color." Although I did not take notice of this when I watched, I did realize once she pointed this out. I was very surprised to see that after 65 shows, the Emmys did not include more diversity on the stage by including people other than white caucasians. Upon reading this, I soon stumbled upon this Huffington Post article applauding the Emmys for making history in its nominees of women. For the first time in its history 50% of the best directors for a television series were women, despite the fact that women made up only 15% of all women directors of a television series. This was an accomplishment for women and society as a whole because it signified great progress in closing the gender gap. These two instances, one showing lack of diversity and the other displaying a great step in the right direction really made me think of the irony of this award show. I couldn't help but wonder if leaving people of color out of the number was on purpose or on accident, and what this tells us about our society. I do applaud the Emmys for their nomination of women this year but I am also disappointed in their dance number and hope next year diversity will be the norm.
As an avid Television watcher, I have watched a plethora of TV shows of all varieties. From reality to drama, and comedy to educational, I have seen it all. Nevertheless, most of these shows do play up the stereotypes and lack diversity (with the exception of ethnic or racial channels such as BET or Univision). The one TV show on cable that has stood out to me the most out of all of these has been Grey's Anatomy. This is definitely one of the most ethnically diverse and realistic show on TV. Creator Shonda Rimes is known for creating controversial and diverse series' that are both interesting and conversation starters. This show puts together a group of doctors of all colors, shapes, and sizes without stereotyping whatsoever. For example, the cast includes Asians, Blacks, Latinos, Caucasians, and even people of mixed backgrounds. Rimes has said that when creating the pilot she was colorblind and did not have the characters with specific ethnicities in mind. Consequently, this ended up creating one of the most diverse casts on television, which is definitely something we could use more of these days with shows like The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and Gossip Girl, which have all white casts and definitely perpetuate racial stereotypes. Grey's Anatomy presents more diversity in its relationships as well by portraying, heterosexual, homosexual, interracial couples, which we rarely see these days in mainstream TV shows. This TV show is a step in the right direction in terms of diversity in the media and I hope to be seeing more shows like it in the near future in order to put an end to the stereotypes and lack of diversity in the media.
