A SAG-COMMISSIONED STUDY conducted by George Gerbner, professor of telecommunications at Temple University, has concluded that Americas poor and underprivileged are practically nonexistent on primetime dramas and daytime soaps, while foreigners and mentally ill characters are more likely to be portrayed as villains.
Entitled Casting The American Scene, the survey sampled nearly 6,900 characters on 440 episodes of primetime dramas from 1994 to 97, and more than 2,100 characters who appeared on 200-plus episodes of network daytime soap operas from 95 to 97. Gerbners research found that by and large the world of television is frozen in a time warp of obsolete and damaging representations.
According to the study, the U.S. Census classifies more than 13% of the populationaand one-third of African-Americansaat or below the poverty level, and many more as low-income wage earners. But among characters playing major TV roles, such wage-earners make up but 1.4% of the major characters in primetime, 1.2% in daytime and 0.6% in childrens programs, thus concealing crucial realities of American life and society.
The impoverished, however, are not the only ignored group. The study described Americans with physical disabilities as virtually invisible in dramatic TV. And even when television depicts certain other overlooked groupsasuch as the mentally ill and people from foreign countriesait is often done in a negative, demeaning fashion. For example, the study reports that the mentally ill are represented as the most dangerous of all demographic groups, with 60% portrayed as being involved in crime or violenceamany times the average rate in society and thus perpetuating a stigma of the most damaging kind. The second most dangerous characters in primetime are those of foreign origin.
Gerbners research also touched upon ethnic minorities, finding Hispanic characters represented at less than one-third of their proportion in the U.S. African-American males, however, are cast in higher numbers than their share of the U.S. population, while Asian/Pacific characters are still less than one-half of their proportion of the U.S. population, the study says.
Perhaps the most dismaying observation is a prime cause cited by the study for the under- or misrepresentation of these often disenfranchised demographic groups. The marketing imperative rules television, concludes the survey. Advertisers seek novelty but not change. They have no incentive to sponsor programs that undermine the existing structure of power, expose glaring inequities, or feature less powerful, less wealthy or less healthy customersaexcept, perhaps, as anomalies or threats.
As organizations like the 4As look to increase minority hiring in their ranks through the implementation of scholarships and other programsaand as a number of spot producers try to open up industry opportunities for inner-city and disadvantaged kidsait is clear that whats being produced, both short- and long-form, also cries out for more careful, thoughtful scrutiny.
Though some strides have been made, our report shows just how far we have to go before Hollywoods vision matches the actual diversity of the American scene, related Dr. Patricia Heisser Metoyer, SAGs executive administrator for affirmative action.
Richard Masur, SAG president, said the guild is committed to improving job opportunities for groups that have traditionally been underrepresented on television and in films. Part of that effort is educating our industry about the differences between the fictional world created for television and film and the real-world audience that watches those fictional creations.
