There has been a shift in the social beliefs by including gay and lesbians in major character roles and making then much more visible. However the people with disabilities are still getting less representation and the roles that are played by the disabled are even decreasing. The Aboriginal Peoples are still getting the least amount of coverage compared to all the minority groups. Most shows on the major networks have not featured Aboriginal Peoples in major primary recurring roles. Hence, the under representation is a setback in the promising trend of creating a multi-culturally diverse television population.
Network Management in terms of the owners of the networks and their top executives, are realizing the greater diversity of the population, and have decided to go out and search for talent. They are searching for actors and actresses from all over North American disregarding the racial difference, the different economic levels, Age and ability. The network management has also encouraged for policies and strategies that create a better working diverse environment for all people despite their cultural beliefs.
In the year 2000 one network that did not follow this view of diversity refused to accept a black writer because they claimed, “ This isn’t a black show. I don’t need a black writer.” ( Diversity and Canadian Broadcasting Policy.)
However Nickelodeon has led by example by creating diverse shows for children. Which has improved the attitude of the children towards ethnic minority groups.
The distribution of roles in television shows has been diversified as a way of distributing these shows to other cultures. From the 1950’s to mid 1980’s television shows mainly portrayed all white television actors in the leading roles. The visible minorities, if any, were portrayed as the lower class and/or negative as the servants or as the “bad guy”. Moving into the late eighties up to today the networks realized the increasing rate of multiculturalism, which influenced them to include the rest of the visible minorities in some of their programs. For example: “Vanishing Son” the “Cosby Show”.
Reality shows have started becoming prevalent on television as way of getting to the rest of the people who can relate to themselves with these “normal” actors through seeing themselves on television or some one who looks like them. i.e. Visible Minorities.
Also, it is important to note, that women on television and their role has changed greatly over the years. Shows like “Ally McBeal, Sex and the city, and Oprah Winfrey” have been able to enter the television corporations and in the end commanded a huge audience.
Lastly the gay and lesbian groups have been able to break into television much more easily since the 21st century with shows like “Will and Grace” and “Queer as Folk” being widely accepted by all audiences. Whereas in the early 90’s Ellen DeGeneres tried to “come out” on audiences rejected television and her. Now even today she is back on television with her own show and she is widely accepted.
AUDIENCE
The television industry has changed its production strategies so that it can suit all audiences. Even the advertising companies have diversified the advertising characters as a way of creating more market for their products from different races and gender groups. For example, Cover Girl Cosmetics now has Queen Latifah as their spokesperson.
The advertisers on television have also realized the purchasing power of the diverse population and utilized this opportunity to widen their market potential within different races by making adverts that include people of Color and balanced influences in terms of gender. This has direct effect because they are seeing someone they can relate on TV both in color and sex. For example “tough guys” commercial. In this advertisement men and boys alike are relating themselves to what they see on TV.
Advertising influence has played a major role on enforcing all white shows in the past. In the past advertising money influenced networks shows to produce an all white conservative viewpoint of North America. With the changing times and the influences of the 60’s and 70’s, and the significant social movements of the times, advertisers realized they had to cater to a much more diverse marketplace. Therefore the networks were able to change their programming to be more diverse. Some networks are changing this landscape and they must include the more diverse ethnic population in North America with the buying power. The reason for this is simple demographics. “ The face of Canada has changed over the past 40 years… In 1961, visible minorities accounted for 3 percent of the population of Toronto…and today, it is over 50 percent.” ( Diversity and Canadian Broadcasting Policy)
In the gender sector white women were the most visually represented in comparison to the women form the other races, though they were minor compared to the men. However these days’ women form other races like Asians and Africans have had tremendous increase in representation on television while even performing major roles. Television news and reality shows are a prime example; the popularity of Julie Chen who is the host of Big Brother and does Good Morning America demonstrates her appeal.
From a cultural and social view, the presence of diverse population on television has a positive effect on the society by closing the gap that has always been present amongst the different races. Today’s television is an all-inclusive environment. It no longer divides the people or the audience into groups of different abilities and moral beliefs. This encourages the viewers not to disregard people whose cultural and social beliefs are different from their own but rather incorporate those beliefs and live together as a community. Again a good example of this is the NBC Morning News with Al Roker doing the weather, Katie Couric and Matt Louwer covering entertainment and Anne Curry covering news.
Most television corporations use the documentary format of production and this form involves the use of factual information about a subject. Information about different races is of great importance to the audience and it provides good information about other cultures, which was not the case in the past. For example APTN-The Aboriginal People’s Television Network, which has provided a better way of interaction with non-aborigines chance bringing them closer through this viewing platform.
‘Comment about CARDS we handed out to the class”
Favorite actress ---why?
Favorite actor -----why?
If entire class picks the same race as themselves then it’s the power of visual images from TV that has influenced them to liken them selves to the people on TV in relation to their color and reflection of cultural and social life.
The television has also a positive effect on children’s socialization. An example is the show Sesame Street. It creates a positive perception amongst children in regards to people from other parts of the world. Since they are able to view a positive and diverse television image, then they possibly learn more about the people they are seeing without getting to meet them. It shows children with disabilities, Spanish, Asian and African Coloring, and teaches both Spanish and French content to children. Barney is also a great show for demonstrating visual minorities; the children in the classroom are comprised of representatives of all races, and usually have one child with a physical challenge.
In the past decades people of different races and beliefs were seen as outcasts, but the inclusion of these people on television has helped model society into a viewpoint that is comprised of “we can accommodate everyone.”
HINDERANCES
Although the productions have come along way in showing diversity, there are still some hindrances that affect certain visible minority groups. For example some of the minority groups are facing economic hardships that prevents them access to opportunities of getting involved in this process of diversifying the population on television.
The aboriginal people are the poorest in the Canadian population and this prevents them access to facilities such as education that could have improved their chances of getting involved in diversification of the television production.
Language barriers also have affected most of the people emigrating from other regions outside North America from being able to blend smoothly into the television media workforce. For example the Latinos who mostly speak Spanish find it difficult to get primary casting roles on most television shows since they have to have an almost inaudible accent (almost non-existent). Some positions in the television medium require perfection in delivering the content of information through the spoken word to the audience in the most understandable manner. This hinders potential employees for the position of newscaster.
In terms of gender on television, they haven’t been able to achieve a tremendous balance because of the discrimination on trivial factors such as age. This has prevented women from performing major roles in television such as news anchoring positions. Worse still there are few women who have been able to get major primary recurring roles in most of the frequently shown television shows.
Some of the cultural beliefs in societies prevent women from performing their roles efficiently and thus robbing them of chances of taking up such influential roles for the television networks. For example if a woman was to be a bureau chief in the former Afghanistan government, she would not be able to get an interview with the Taliban because they minimized the women according to their cultural beliefs and rules.
Politically, there is also imbalance in representation of views that affect the government and their political agenda. Most of the television media corporations give more media space to the government bodies most especially in cases that involve the public views. The affected minorities usually get less coverage from the media in comparison to the ruling government even if the case was affecting the minority. This is because the media is interested in having the government decisions on air, rather than those from the minority, since they believe that this would compromise the government. For example during “the War in Iraq” the affected minority in Canada and the US who were the families of the troops in the gulf war 2 were given little media space by only showing them while sad because of the departure of their families. The media didn’t show their views about the war because mostly they were anti-war and that would be against the government’s political agenda. The coverage of the war was for the most part a rally for the soldiers and the government’s political views. They never tried to include the humanitarian point of the war by showing the suffering civilians who were victims of the war.
FUTURE PROSPECTS
The management of television corporations has taken the initiative to introduce new shows on the networks. These shows have brought employment opportunities for the visible minorities in terms of production and acting. Producers and actors are being employed by companies as way of encouraging diversity in the programming.
The diversification of television programming is a great way of improving the economic, social and cultural values of our society. Television technology has improved from the historical black and white television sets to colored TV sets. So why should not the actors on the television and the content be “colored” as well.
CONCLUSION
Recent representation of minority groups on television programs is still low. How will this demonstrate the equal rights of individuals in terms of gender, multicultural and the multiracial nature of society?
In conclusion, the image of the visible minority in tele-visual media in North America has changed substantially not only the face of television but also the production. With this shift in thinking television corporations have been able to increase their audience through diverse programming. This idea of diversity in visual media has spread to advertising companies and is being used as a way of targeting the increasing visible minorities. Presently watching diverse programs on television has a positive impact on audience. This is because the viewers are watching different cultural programs which gives them new information. This teaches young people, the children about others. It also teaches them how to relate, value and respect other people in a multicultural society other their own race.