Racial Diversity In TV Shows

In 1979, Johnson and his wife Sheila established Black Entertainment Television, the main link system focusing on the African-American market. It was dispatched in January 1980, at first television for two hours a week. In 1991, BET turned into the primary African American-claimed organization to be recorded on the New York Stock Exchange. The system has kept on developing since that time, achieving a huge number of homes and extending to incorporate other customary and computerized channels.

Over the years television has been known to be one of the major educating and socializing institution in America. Television in today’s society is able to play a powerful key through which individuals can be informed, hold forums, and voice their opinion‘s. Television is also important because it offers us glimpses into minority life and minority figures. When sociologists examine minorities in television they document how minorities are portrayed and how those portrayals have changed over the years. Through time, minorities in television have been able to make moderate gains whether they are in front of or behind cameras. However, they continue to remain significantly underrepresented as leading actors in films, as writers, and as TV show creators. Even though minorities are significantly underrepresented in today’s society the TV industry has been pushing to give an opportunity to many minority groups in succeeding in the media. Several TV shows and commercials have succeeded in the TV industry to try and change how minorities are underrepresented, however, there are also shows that reinforce stereotypes and are prejudice towards minorities.

What really is considered too white? Why doesn't tv show more of a color diversity? Should television even be used to demonstrate equality between whites and people of color? Although it may be true, there are statically more white's than black's in the U.S. ranging from 75.1% to 12.3% according to the Demographic Statistics. However as the years continue on, equality between African Americans and whites are still being battled throughout the U.S. as African Americans are still being slandered for the color of their skin. So as a fellow African American citizen myself, television wouldn't be a bad start to show how people of color and whites can actually get along on the big screen.

Television and film is a huge part of American culture. As the “face” of America changes, it is expected for our media to reflect it. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Since the beginning of film, minorities have been misrepresented and underrepresented. While there has been a significant increase in minority actors since the beginning of film, there is still a huge underrepresentation present in American television and film. Our media needs to reflect out diverse country. This topic is always important and relevant because race, gender, and sexuality, in general, have been issues throughout the growth of television and film. Even today, minorities are subject to

Rothman (2014) article she stats that a study from UCLA shows the gender and racial of nearly 1200 movies and TV shows from 2011-2012.From their data it shows that minorities and women are underrepresented, compared to real-life U.S. demographics, like Horowitz (2014)

African Americans are not always seen in a positive light, they are usually seen in controversial and misrepresented images in the media. "Research on the portrayal of African Americans in prime-time television from 1955 to 1986 found that only 6 percent of the characters were African-Americans, while 89 percent of the TV population was white. Among these African-American characters, 19 percent lacked a high school diploma and 47 percent were low in economic status." The idea of African Americans being well represented is a debate of ownership diversity which affects content

Diversity in media is overall a good thing in media, it's just that some studio heads don’t know how to do it right causing poor representation.

In many Pop Culture films and TV shows diversity has become more of a taboo topic, except for one Freeform show that has attempted to challenge this idea set in place by the media. The Fosters is a Teen-Drama that is centered around an interracial lesbian couple and their children. The family consists of; the two moms, Stef and Lena Foster, Stef’s biological son, Brandon Foster, two adopted twins, Mariana and Jesus Foster, and the most recent additions to their family, a “juvenile delinquent”, Callie, and her younger brother, Jude. Not only has the show focused on diversity, but it has also illustrated a heavy focus on the LGBT community, along with racism, rape, police brutality, juvenile detention centers, and much more.

The mass medium I have chosen to critique is a new television show called This Is Us and it airs on the NBC channel. This Is Us is a show about a family with triplets and they show how they handle all the different parts of their lives. This particular mass medium addresses many of the different current issues going on in today’s society including; race, diversity, education, religion, and politics. This Is Us addresses diversity in today’s society and portrays many different types of people within this one television show. To prove that this mass medium portrays diversity I will look into how this show illustrates race, different social stances, and different educational backgrounds both positively and negatively. Also, to better the credibility

Diversity and representation has been in an increased demand over the past few years. Even children's TV producers and creators are taking notice by including LGBT and all sorts of ethnic characters in their shows. However, it seems that Hollywood has yet to take note.

Some may say that the portrayal of racial minorities on primetime television have remained the same for decades, and that it has a negative impact on the way we view minorities. Others may say that the portrayal of racial minorities on television has improved drastically. I believe that the representation of minorities has not improved.

The discussion of diversity in Hollywood is very important. Some people will claim that there is a diversity issue throughout Hollywood and a lack of representation for minorities, while others will argue that there is a wide spectrum of diversity, therefore destroying the idea that there is an issue. There are more shows and films that revolve around straight, healthy Caucasians than shows and films that revolve around LGBT members, people who have to live with disabilities, and people of color. Hollywood has suffered substantially from a lack of showing a great deal of diversity.

The minimal diversity in not only modern, but past television shows should be addressed by different television networks. This will give attention to the subject and create conversations on the topic of diversity and representation. Representation in the media is crucial to the success of a television show. Diversity in the networks would boost the views. Many actors have the ability to inspire children around the world, showing that you can do anything no matter the color of your skin. This boosts ratings and views because parents will want to give their children a role model to look up to.

Not only as a tool of entertainment, television also serves as an instruction tool because television can be the reflection of culture, race and gender. Because of the diversity of the audiences, expanding diversity is necessary in the television industry. More and more shows begin to feature minority group; however, the representation of minorities still has issues of underrepresentation and stereotype because producers believe casting minorities can’t make money. It is no doubt that white actors disproportionally dominate the screen and minority actors are often characterized as criminal and immoral roles. The colorblind casting and a diverse writers’ room are effective measures to solve those challenges.

Whether it is on TV screens of movie cinemas, the predominant casting of Whites has always been prevalent in the media. It has made many people raise questions about the lack of Asian representation and other people of colour. The few roles that are cast to Asians or Blacks are featured in their stereotypical images (Bonilla-Silva 179). Even in advertising, Asians are placed in different settings than their White counterparts (Taylor and Stern 50). Most research has been analyzed on movies, but rarely on a comedic television series. I will be acknowledging this lack of research by analyzing a TV show, Fresh Off the Boat, was released last year which features an Asian family. The show has received fairly positive reviews, partly due to the