Is Streaming TV Less Diverse Than Old Fashioned Entertainment Sources?
Streaming video is the next generation of entertainment. But, as a mix of Hollywood and Silicon Valley, is it representative of the diversity in the U.S.?
Despite the streaming industry's role in creating inclusive shows like "Transparent" and "Orange Is the New Black," the answer appears to be "No, not really." According to a new study by the University of Southern California's Annenberg school (via Quartz), streaming services are lagging behind traditional media when it comes to representation of Latinos, other minorities and women on and off screen.
The study, the first of its kind, looked at the "old" media industry -- film, broadcast and cable TV -- and compared the representation of minorities and women onscreen and behind the camera to projects from new media streaming companies like Amazon Prime and Netflix.
Called the "Comprehensive Annenberg Report on Diversity" (CARD), the report looked at major productions from 10 of the largest, most influential media companies: 21st Century Fox, CBS, Comcast NBCUniversal, Disney, Time Warner, Viacom, Amazon, Hulu and Netflix. CARD measured a wide swath of inclusivity data, from the CEO of the companies to upper executive ranks to every character speaking onscreen.
The results show a lot of similarities in representation between old and new media, including a surprising lack of diversity in the modern streaming industry.
The study sampled over 400 stories, over 100 films, and over 300 broadcast, digital and cable series between late 2014 and August 2015. The data yielded a comprehensive table, which details the relative inclusivity of various media outlets in terms of onscreen portrayals and employees behind the camera.
When it came to female and underrepresented (UR) characters onscreen, as well as female writers and content creators behind the camera, the most inclusive company was Disney, followed by The CW (Time Warner).
Hulu managed to be more inclusive of UR characters and was the only media outlet that reached full parity with female characters onscreen, and it was largely inclusive of women writers as well. Netflix fell behind many old media companies in most measures.
Streaming video in general had fewer racial and ethnic minorities onscreen compared to older media outlets. Only 2 percent of digital streaming content had a cast that included a representative balance of Latinos, Asian-Americans, and other non-white UR characters. Nearly 1-in-5 broadcast TV shows managed to strike a demographic balance, while 13 percent of cable TV and 7 percent of moving pictures did the same.
Leadership roles for streaming services are going mostly to men, as is the case with the rest of Silicon Valley. The study found that in film more than 25 percent of top executives tended to be women. Streaming companies only managed 20 percent, while executive roles in streaming media were only held by women at a rate of 18.7 percent, far below the movie industry's 29 percent and television's over 45 percent.
Broadcast and cable TV both outperformed streaming services when it came to female show writers as well. Broadcast led with over 31 percent female writers, followed by cable with over 28 percent. Streaming managed about 25 percent female writers, only beating out the film industry at 10.8 percent. A similar trend, though generally in much lower proportions, existed for gender diversity among directors.
"We believe that evaluating company output is a crucial aspect of pushing the conversation on media inclusion forward to create real change," researchers wrote in the study's summary. "Shifting from invisibility to inclusion is no easy task. Companies have the opportunity to dismantle the structures and systems that have guided decades of exclusionary decision-making."
"Continued evaluation, increased advocacy, and greater transparency are necessary to transform an industry that has profited from invisibility to one that can celebrate inclusivity," the researchers concluded.