diversity & inclusion

After ABC’s Big Sky drew Native American censure for overlooking an epidemic of violence against Indigenous women and girls, its producers set about making changes. But the first, hurried steps were called “bumpy” and insulting by Native leaders.

The House of Representatives has passed a bill that reaffirms Congress’ commitment to media diversity and strategy of working with media organizations to better represent the American people. The bill, H. Res 549, was introduced in 2019 by Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.). It’s official wording is: “[A] resolution reaffirming the commitment of the House of Representatives to media diversity … and pledges to work with media entities and diverse stakeholders to develop common ground solutions to eliminate barriers to media diversity.”

A study by Nielsen found that women and people of color are underrepresented on television relative to their share of the overall population. The study by the ratings service looked at not just how many people from various identity groups are cast on TV series, but how often and how long they appear.

Native American tribes and coalitions are condemning Big Sky, a Montana-set ABC drama produced by David E. Kelley, for ignoring the history of violence inflicted on Indigenous women and instead making Whites the crime victims.

The nonprofit organization, All Raise, led by CEO Pam Kostka, is working on an expansion, as diversity in the tech industry remains elusive.

A number of returning network series have made decisions to incorporate a near-real time response to the summer’s resurgence of Black Lives Matter protests, cries for police reform and general social activism into their formats. But doing so has not come without challenges and narrative changes for these already-established series, especially as production was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

CBS’s slate of reality shows is set to become more diverse after the network introduced a series of representation targets. The network has introduced an edict that 50% of its casts for its unscripted shows must be Black, Indigenous or People of Color (BIPOC) and it has committed that at least 25% of its annual unscripted development budget must go towards creators and producers that are BIPOC.

Galen Gordon, VP for the National Football League Media Group, has joined ABC News as SVP for talent strategy and development, starting Nov. 30. He reports to ABC News President James Goldston.

In a hour-long digital edition of her syndicated show Matter of Fact tomorrow night (7 p.m. ET), O’Brien will lead a discussion of race and privilege, racial stress, the impact of bias in the images and language in our daily news and the creation of stereotypes and how they influence the way we think. It will livestream on the digital platforms of Matter of Fact and most Hearst media properties.

In a bid to create a “further catalyst for real and sustained change,” ABC Entertainment has set forth a slate of new inclusion standards for all primetime series to “ensure multidimensional representation across the entire creative and production process.”

Amid a year of the entertainment industry — and the nation as a whole — reckoning with the way it approaches issue of racial representation and gender parity, ViacomCBS is kicking off its annual inclusion week with an eye toward tackling those issues head on. This year it will do so as an enlarged company following the merger of Viacom and CBS, and in a newly virtual environment due to the ongoing pandemic.

NBCUniversal has promoted Janine Jones-Clark to executive vice president, inclusion – talent and content, NBCUniversal Film, Television and Streaming, the company announced on Tuesday. Jones-Clark will retain oversight of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group’s diversity, inclusion and equity strategies, and will add NBCUniversal’s entertainment, streaming and television studio teams to her purview.

The 2020 Emmy Awards saw a noticeable uptick in the number of nonwhite acting winners, with Watchmen star Regina King’s fourth Emmy win and a surprise nod for Euphoria star Zendaya leading the way. Out of the 19 performer categories — including the guest, short form and voice-over categories from last week’s Creative Arts Emmys — 10 went to Black actors.

He will oversee attracting, retaining and growing diverse talent, developing training programs to enhance awareness and accountability in diversity issues as well as facilitating the company’s racial diversity and inclusion employee working group.

Disney’s FX Networks is hiring an ombudsman with the title senior vice president of diversity and culture, who will report to CEO John Landgraf.

Perhaps a significant step toward real equality could begin with televised dialogues, conversations, interactions and discussions so racial inequality gets exposed to thousands of people in communities all over the U.S., and a path to equality begins to emerge.

A TVNewsCheck webinar, “Report Card on Race: A Media Industry Reckoning,” found the television news industry still has a long way to go with its diversity and inclusion efforts, but there’s a genuine and sustained momentum underway for change.

The veteran TV journalist is tapped for the new role as the division’s senior vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion, responsible for developing and implementing “a comprehensive strategy that will make diversity and inclusion issues a top priority across NBCUniversal’s owned stations group.”

That is an inherently uncomfortable proposition. But, as we are seeing amid civil unrest and protests across this country and abroad, having frank and honest conversations on the subject, including the ability to air grievances without negative repercussions, is really the only way we can move forward. These conversations must be followed by meaningful actions. Learn about five such actions to help companies keep the lines of communication open while making the changes that need to be made.

Ellen Crooke, Tegna’s VP of news, says the Black Lives Matter movement has promoted greater “intentionality” in the group’s efforts for diversity and inclusion in its news organizations and leadership. She adds that COVID-19 has also supercharged Tegna’s Verify fact-checking project and data visualization efforts.

Television executives from E.W. Scripps, Tegna and the NAB will assess what progress the industry is making toward diversity and inclusion among its ranks and in front of its news cameras in an Aug. 13 TVNewsCheck Working Lunch webinar. Register here.

It’s been called a “civil war” in some of the nation’s leading newsrooms, a battle between generations of reporters and writers over the directions and goals of journalism, especially in how it covers challenging topics like race, gender and a certain figure in the White House.

A heated early-June phone call between Fox execs and Black staffers was just the beginning of an internal revolt against racism at the network, according to insiders.

CBS is aggressively stepping up its efforts to be more inclusive to diverse television creators and writers, setting a slew of targets for the 2021-22 season. The broadcaster is committing 25% of its script development budget to projects from creators, writers and producers who are Black, Indigenous and people of color.

Producers are being pushed to vet talent and to confront the history of tokenism in the genre: “Networks have treated casting diverse groups of people like fulfilling a quota.”