Is America a diverse country?
If so, do on-screen representations in films, televisions and other media reflect this diversity?
This Changes Everything is a documentary streaming on Netflix about the effort to have more women and people from diverse backgrounds direct films and television programs. It is also about the power of data.
Why are diverse directors important? Voices from the many cultures of our nation translate directly to stories that reflect and include those of marginalized people. This can mean everything to multicultural audiences in our country and to those who watch what we Americans export to the rest of the world.
This Changes Everything is a thorough, detailed, persuasive and illustrative examination of power and how difficult it is to attain power especially when gaining power for one group equals losing power for another group.
In any discussion of media, power is an important player. In my college communication classes I focused on the power of government, churches and the marketplace of ideas on mediums of mass communication.
By definition, power is held with strength and is rarely relinquished voluntarily. It is usually held by muscle and by force.
But this documentary shows that there is also another force that is also an important player: children. Children reside outside of the usual equations of power in media, such as free market v. government imposed regulations, free speech v. limitations and recognition of the importance of representation of women and minorities in media.
Children can change the equation because they reside in both opposing camps of mainstream media and the those who want to enter and populate mainstream media, folks such as women and people from diverse backgrounds.
The power of children in the equation is hard to measure because children and their importance transcends that of money or strength. They are the future of our human race and its survival.
Children are the keepers of our knowledge, our treasure of wisdom. They are the product of humanity, a product more precious than the sum of the rest our other inventions and ideas.
The documentary shows that the way to fix a problem begins by recognizing that a problem exists. I have seen the debate about on-screen representation of women and minorities waged loudly or quietly for the past 50 years. There are still many in positions of privilege who refuse to recognize that a problem exists. That could be changing with the arrival of research data. Research data now show in hard-to-argue-against numbers that our on screen worlds in fact do not match our in real life in-person worlds.
Children are influenced by what they see. Children’s on-screen viewing can affect their ideas on how strong or weak, how powerful or powerless they believe themselves to be.
In the 1960’s, Fred Rogers and the Children’s Television Workshop were both pioneers of an early recognition of the importance of protecting children’s viewing. Those were the days that television used the public airwaves to broadcast programs, so government had a clear and defined role. I was very influenced by my classes at the University of Texas especially my course on children and television taught by Aida Barrera, the producer of Carrascolendas. The PBS program for children which depicted life in small-town South Texas.
With the advent of cable and the Internet, the public’s airwaves were no longer used in. TVwould become a private industry and with additional deregulation laws our government’s role became less defined. That role is at the heart of current efforts stop regulate internet monopolies.
The documentary shows recent research data is irrefutable. What children see on-screen is unbalanced and distorted in its representation of gender and diversity.
The documentary shows the efforts to quantify and bring data into the present day legal argument to balance representation of women and diverse populations and also to fold in the importance of children into the equation.
That may prove to be the winning formula.
It gives me hope for progress.
I have witnessed the decades of struggle to bring change to the massively powerful and lucrative entertainment media industry. The tipping point may be the role of children and the importance of protecting their minds and hearts.
People in the industry entrenched with profits-uber-alles mentality may think “hey it’s my paycheck! Get out of here with your gender and diversity equality ideas,“ but everyone—however much money they are making—has a stake in children.
We all share dreams of a better future. If anything can change the course of media misrepresentation it may be the idea of including how misrepresentations detrimentally affects all children.
Equal employment opportunity commission efforts and other legal remedies are truly important drivers, but in the marketplace of ideas putting kids first may be the way to turn the wheel of change in on-screen representation of women and diverse groups forward, faster and further.
Children’s well-being depends on changing how gender and diversity are shown on screen.
It is interesting that finally seeing data that measures misrepresentation may be what brings opposing camps finally together to work together. I look forward to the day the stories we tell are of who we really are and who we can be, instead of who we aren’t.
