Behind the Screen: Diversity in Film & TV

Despite the growing awareness on the topic of representation in the media, it's still apparent that disabled people are largely underrepresented, not only onscreen, but also in the film and TV workforce. The Creative Diversity Network's 2017 report,  Diamond: The First Cut , has looked extensively into employment statistics from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, and Sky in order to see where minorities lie in the film and TV industry. The CDN states that "Diamond (Diversity Analysis Monitoring Data) is an end-to-end process for collecting and reporting diversity data. Diamond creates, for the first time, a common standard for monitoring diversity across all the main broadcasters." ( 2016 ). The data found will be important in revealing the strengths and weaknesses of UK Broadcasters when it comes to representing the underrepresented both on and behind the screen. In recent years, Channel 4's coverage of the Paralympics and Winter Paralympics has become transfor...

While the people at the top of the food chain - the ones that get the awards, big deals with studios, and recognition - are mostly straight white men, many Drama, Screenwriting, and Filmmaking students are from minority backgrounds ( Green, 2017 ). This leaves me to question where the point comes that leaves us with the majority of films being made by white people, for white people? Looking at my own university (The University of York, UK), it's clear to see there is a diverse range of students . There is an almost 50% male to female split in my cohort on the Film and Television Production course, suggesting that there is definitely interest from an equal amount of men and women to enter the industry. So where does the p oint come that makes it so that only 3.3% of big budget (£30+ million) feature films are directed by women? ( Directors UK, 2016 ) This mini-doc from The Guardian looks at the amount of students there are at prestigious creative arts schools in the UK, the amo...