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New Survey Spotlights an Ongoing Problem for Television

Sep 15, 2011  •  Post A Comment

The Directors Guild of America has released a survey that highlights what appears to be a persistent problem for the television industry — the lack of diversity in prime-time television, reports the Los Angeles Times’ Show Tracker blog.

The survey found that white males directed 77% of all episodes, while white females directed 11% of episodes, the story notes. Minority males directed 11% of episodes, while minority females directed just 1% of episodes, the story says. The results find little change from a similar survey that focused on the 2009-10 season, the piece adds.

The guild’s leaders expressed disappointment with the survey’s findings. The DGA has traditionally pushed for the inclusion of more women and minorities, the story notes.

4 Comments

  1. Same demographic of directors may help explain why why we see the same crap churned out night after night, channel after channel. I’m all for diversity of programming and the people who make it happen. Of course those in charge of the networks only care about ratings and revenue which typically dictates thinking inside the box.

  2. The problem with these types of demographics is that they are assuming there are equal numbers of males, females and all of the different races in the mix. And you can’t compare the numbers with the percentages of total people in the US or even the world. How many people of any distinction are in the industry in question and what is their breakdown? Compare those numbers with the numbers of people actually doing a particular job. If 10% of the total number of potential directors happen to be women, you can’t expect there to be 50% of the director jobs being held by women (or whatever scenario you propose).

  3. The problem with these types of demographics is that they are assuming there are equal numbers of males, females and all of the different races in the mix. And you can’t compare the numbers with the percentages of total people in the US or even the world. How many people of any distinction are in the industry in question and what is their breakdown? Compare those numbers with the numbers of people actually doing a particular job. If 10% of the total number of potential directors happen to be women, you can’t expect there to be 50% of the director jobs being held by women (or whatever scenario you propose).

  4. I hate it when you try and post something, it tells you it failed, you try again, and you get two postings… sorry for that.

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