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Hollywood's 2015 diversity problem and the powerful impact of film and television

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Hollywood's 2015 diversity problem and the powerful impact of film and television

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Hollywood’s 2015 Diversity Problem and the Powerful Impact of Film and Television

by

Lattiah Myah Williams

______________________________________________________________________

A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirement for the Degree
(SPECIALIZED JOURNALISM FOR THE ARTS)

May 2015

Copyright 2015 Lattiah Myah Williams

ii

Acknowledgements

I want to thank the faculty of USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and
Journalism for the opportunities offered as part of the Masters in Specialized Journalism
for the Arts program.

I also want to recognize and thank professors Sandy Tolan, Karen Lowe and Mary
Murphy for advising my thesis as well as professors Sasha Anawalt and Tim Page for
their unwavering support and guidance during my time in the program. Lastly, thank you
to fellow students, Victor Figueroa and Stephanie Case for their assistance in helping to
polish the sound editing of the radio documentary.

iii

Dedication

To my grandfather, for being a life long guide.

iv

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements ii
Dedication iii
Abstract v
Introduction 1
Choice of Medium 3
Interview Subjects 5
Radio Documentary Transcript 7
Conclusion 22
References 24

v

Abstract

The purpose of this project is to investigate the current landscape of Hollywood film and
TV in the wake of recent media outcries for more diversity both on screen and in
executive positions of power. I have interviewed entertainment industry insiders as well
as media journalists whose insights and perspectives complement raw data and
statistics from UCLA’s 2015 Hollywood Diversity Report, which show that Hollywood’s
offerings poorly reflect the diverse makeup of the nation’s population. So, why is
accurate cultural representation important? Movies and television are powerful
communicative devices with the potential to form and shape how we view ourselves and
the world around us. Also in terms of economics, studies referenced in this report have
shown that minority audiences contribute enormously to movie box office revenue and
television program ratings. So why have studios and networks not embraced diversity to
an extent that matches the make up of our population? This radio documentary will
explore current and age-old trends within the industry’s business model as well as the
burgeoning social and cultural imperatives for a change in Hollywood.

1

Introduction
The first movie I ever committed to memory was Steven Spielberg’s 1982 blockbuster
E.T. The film was released before I was born but at the age of three my mother thought
it would be appropriate for an impressionable child. I was horrified. E.T. was an alien
from a distant planet, abandoned by his companions during a mission to Earth to
observe our plant life. E.T. looked and sounded different from anything I had ever seen.
Due in large part to the ability of Spielberg’s art department and special effects team,
E.T. appeared to be real and every aspect of his “otherness” alarmed me.

Growing up in North Little Rock, AR in the 1990’s I always knew there was a difference
between black and white; at least that is how my community operated. Enforced
segregation was a thing of the past but tensions of the Jim Crow South still reverberated
under the surface of day-to-day interactions. I was told in school that I was an “Oreo”,
someone who was black on the outside, but white on the inside. I spoke differently, like I
“wanted to be white” according to children in my all-black neighborhood. I was four
years old the first time I was ever called the n-word at a private pre-school. So I knew
from a very young age that I occupied the marginalized space of “the other”.

Though my first memorable experience with them proved traumatizing, I grew to love
movies to the point that I dreamed of becoming an art director or film producer one day.
I took a seminar course at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts the summer following my
junior year of high school and for the first time was taught to look at films not merely as
entertainment, but as social and cultural products with the power to shape and inform

2

our perspectives. The concept of “representation” of gender, class and race was
completely foreign to me until watching The Godfather, Bamboozled and Carmen Jones
through an analytical lens. I would go on to NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts to major in
Cinema Studies. There I was exposed to foreign cinema such as Italian Neorealism and
the French New Wave. I screened dozens of hours of silent films and read theorists
such as Andre Bazín and Sergei Eisenstein. So it is with this background and interest in
film and entertainment as an art form and social element that I have approached this
thesis.

Roger Ebert famously said in the foreword to his book The Great Movies that, “The
audience for a brief time is somewhere else, sometime else, concerned with lives that
are not its own. Of all the arts, movies are the most powerful aid to empathy, and the
good ones make us into better people” (Ebert 2002, 6). Much of the same can be said
for television especially in the past several years with premium, cable and network
stations all participating in a sort of TV renaissance. Columnist for The New York Times,
David Carr proclaimed in 2014 that, “The growing intellectual currency of television has
altered the cultural conversation in fundamental ways”. With sky high ratings and fervent
social media engagement along with media publications citing shows such as HBO’s
Sopranos and Game of Thrones or AMC’s Mad Men and Breaking Bad among others
as bringing on a “second Golden Age of Television”, TV in our homes and on our
devices can be just as socially impactful as film (Carr 2014).

3

Choice of Medium
This thesis is presented in the format of a radio documentary. Before beginning the
Masters of Specialized Journalism for the Arts program at USC Annenberg, I had not
been exposed to public radio as means of communicative story telling and reporting.
Radio for me was a musical companion during long commutes. During our program’s
three-week summer boot camp we were instructed to read from Sound Reporting: The
NPR Guide to Audio Reporting and Journalism. The two most impactful claims for me in
the book’s starting pages were to radio’s intimacy and the communicative effects of the
human voice (Kern 2008,14).

I was able to put this notion to practice during the fall semester when I conducted my
first interview and produced my first radio piece. My interview subject was Charles M.
Blow, a columnist for The New York Times, who met with me during a book tour stop for
his memoir Fire Shut Up In My Bones. Blow, like myself, was raised in Arkansas by his
grandparents and retold his story of growing up poor in the rural south and battling
childhood abuse, feeling ostracized and struggling with societal pressures and ideals of
black masculinity. Listening to him, his voice conveyed a sense of vulnerability but also
evoked the strength it took to reveal these hardships. The power of the human voice is
vastly communicative as made apparent by this experience.

For many people, talking about our favorite films and television programs sparks a very
emotional delivery ranging on a scale from nostalgia to excitement or frustration. For
these reasons, I chose the medium of radio documentary to combine elements of

4

personal essay, interviews, and data reporting to bolster my thesis.

5

Interview Subjects
Kenneth Turan
Kenneth Turan is the film critic for The LA Times and NPR Morning Edition. He recently
published his own ode to movies in the form of a book titled Not to Be Missed: 54
Favorites From a Lifetime of Film. In the book Turan revisits the movies that he refers to
as old friends, to whom he can return to time and again to rediscover what inspired and
entertained him. Because of Turan’s very personal attachment to the medium, his
perspective on the current woes of the Hollywood film industry is especially insightful.
Turan also currently teaches a course at USC’s Annenberg School of Journalism,
“Writing the Film Review”. For Turan, the most valuable aspect of writing film reviews is
connecting with the audience. In 2014, Turan reviewed Ava Duvernay’s highly
acclaimed Martin Luther King Jr. biopic, Selma for The LA Times concluding that, “Even
if you can't ignore the elements that do not work on screen, you can be grateful that this
momentous chapter in American history has been filmed at last” (Turan, 2014).

Shereen Marisol Meraji
Shereen Marisol Meraji is a journalist reporting for NPR’s Code Switch team. When
asked to define the mission Code Switch in a few words Meraji responded, “We are
reporting from the frontiers of race and ethnicity in pop culture.” Meraji recently reported
on the fallout of the fatal shooting of teenager Mike Brown in August 2014. She was
there again when a grand jury ruled not to indict Darren Wilson, the officer who shot
Brown. Meraji’s other recent radio features include a visit to Aspen, CO covering the
annual “Black Summit” put on by the National Brotherhood of Skiers, a profile of

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Vietnamese actor and star of AMC’s The Walking Dead Steven Yeunn and a feature on
Hope House, a summer camp for the children of incarcerated fathers in Cumberland,
MD. Meraji, who herself is half Puerto Rican, half Iranian-American reports on issues
effecting minorities with the goal of breaking through stereotypes and showcasing
aspects of humanity that are common to all of us.

Janet Yang
Named one of the “50 Most Powerful Women in Hollywood” by The Hollywood Reporter,
Janet Yang is a Golden Globe and Emmy award winning producer and entertainment
consultant. She produced The People Vs. Larry Flynt (Milos Foreman, 1996) and
executive produced The Joy Luck Club (Wayne Wang, 1993). Yang is currently the
President of Janet Yang Productions and The Manifest Film Company. She recently
partnered with Jose Antonio Vargas publishing an op ed in The LA Times titled
“Hollywood’s Diversity Problem Beyond Selma”. In her creative work, Yang is known for
finding stories to break through cultural barriers (especially between China and the
West) and highlight marginalized voices
1
. Yang, who is Chinese American, is also a
member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

1

Janetyang.com,
Biography

7

Radio Documentary Transcript
Host Introduction: Movies and TV draw us out of our own experience and in to the
worlds of people and places we don’t know. For, Myah Williams, entertainment at its
best, can help us better understand ourselves and the world around us. But in 2015 new
research from UCLA’s Hollywood Diversity Report shows that minorities are
underrepresented on screen and in positions of power. Hollywood is not accurately
reflecting the diversity of the world, which has become a focal point of scrutiny. In the
following radio essay, Williams delves in to how impactful entertainment can be. She
talks to media and entertainment insiders about the industry’s trouble with showcasing
diversity, representing “otherness” and the cultural and economic imperatives for
change. But first, Myah takes us back to a childhood experience with the E.T. ride at
Universal Studios that taught her how to embrace “otherness”, even if it at first it’s
frightening.

(Opens with music from the original soundtrack to E.T., “The Flying Theme” composed
by John Williams, 1982)

Narration: Sound familiar? That's the Flying Theme by legendary film composer John
Williams. You may recognize these swelling crescendos from the triumphant ending to
Steven Spielberg’s 1982 blockbuster hit, E.T. I was three when I first saw the film and it.
Was. Terrifying.

(Audio sound bite of Gertie, played by Drew Barrymore, and E.T. screaming upon

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discovering each other)

Narration: When I was 8 years old my family took a trip to Universal Studios Hollywood.
We were a long way from our hometown of North Little Rock, Arkansas and I was blown
away by the magnitude of the studio lot… little did I know, I was about to enter the world
of E.T.

Narration: As the tram slowly approaches a huge sound stage I brace myself clutching
on to my mother’s hand. Then we are led through a miraculous forest. Inside, it’s dark
but there are stars and trees and we tread on green mulch as the soundtrack to the
movie fills the speakers. Finally we are led to a set of silver bicycles suspended from the
ceiling and instructed to hop on and strap in. Almost instantaneously we’re bounded up
flying above the forest set and over a cityscape then into outer space to E.T. home
planet. I am in awe.

Narration: It’s as if we are living the movie. There are miraculous creatures everywhere;
aliens on lily pads and stars and clouds. And finally we come to an abrupt halt and we
sort of start to creep out and I know the ride is coming to an end and I’ve just had the
most thrilling experience of my life. And then, there is E.T. that scary little alien. The one
who horrified me and made me hate this film, but I’ve just been amazed by his world
and as we each pass by he said goodbye to us one by one.

Narration: Goodbye Myah he says, He says my name! Later I realized it’s because we

9

filled out the name cards when we entered. But in that moment, we had a connection.
And I fell in love with E.T.

Narration: As I grew older the meaning grew deeper. E.T. was an alien left alone in a
world where Elliot, a child, was his only friend. He was “different”, and this was a threat
for those in positions of power who didn’t understand him. As the story goes, E.T. is
eventually set free leaving those who crossed his path better for having known him. I
related to this story of alienation because I grew up in a place that was largely black or
white. But like E.T. I didn’t fit completely in to either world, because for most kids at
school, the way I talked betrayed the color of my skin and where I lived was on the
proverbial wrong side of the tracks. Being accepted was like an uphill battle.

Narration: Watching movies was an outlet for me. I saw in Dorothy Dandridge
commanding the stage in Carmen Jones.

(Sound clip from the song “Dat’s Love” from Otto Preminger’s 1954 film Carmen Jones.
Bizet, 1954)

Narration: She was the epitome of confidence and feminine appeal. She was a beautiful
woman and talented actress whose race was an aspect rather than a definition of her
identity. On the other hand I was mesmerized by the grace and class of Audrey
Hepburn traipsing across Paris with Fred Astaire in Funny Face.

10

(Sound clip from the song “Bon Jour Paris” from Stanley Donen’s 1957 film Funny Face.
Edens, 1957)

Narration: I’d never been to France and Hepburn looked nothing like me but that’s
what’s so great about movies they show us world’s different than our own and allow us
to connect with them.

Narration: So that’s why I fell in love with movies as a child. But as an adult working in
the industry, I am not immune to the current issues plaguing Hollywood. According to
The LA Times, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which awards the
Oscars each year by votes from its 6,000 member guild, is 93% white, 76% male and
has an average age of 63 years Fom 2002 to 2012 only 20% of nominees were ethnic
minorities (Horn, Sperling, Smith 2012).

Narration: “The Oscars Haven’t Been This White in 19 Years,” The Atlantic proclaimed
with a striking headline on the day the nominations were announced (Sims 2015). Later
during the awards telecast, Oscar host Neil Patrick Harris even made a joke at the
Academy’s expense in his opening number.

Neil Patrick Harris: Welcome to the 87
th
Oscars, tonight we honor Hollywood’s best and
whitest. Sorry, brightest (Oscars telecast 2015, NBC).

Narration: Kenneth Turan is the Film Critic for the LA Times and NPR’s Morning Edition.

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He sees entertainment as a powerful social device and is cognizant of Hollywood’s
diversity problem.

KT: It’s a risk aversive business at its core. I think anything different than what they’ve
done is a risk and risk is something that’s instinctively avoided. Though obviously from
an instinctive point of view these different audiences would go to the movies and spend
money. It doesn’t really make sense because there are all these people who want to
see themselves on screen. I went to a film festival in Burkina Faso and the man who ran
the festival said we want to see ourselves on screen. All over the world people want to
see themselves on screen. And they should. And when they see themselves on the
screen they go. So if Hollywood was a sane business they would be putting everyone
on screen because it’s good business, but they haven’t done it and they don’t know how
to do things they haven’t done for decades. They don’t know where to start.

Narration: A new study bolsters Turan’s claim that diverse audiences are primed
moviegoers. UCLA’s 2015 Hollywood Diversity Report, shows that while minorities
make up only 36.3% of the US population, they constitute more than half, that’s 51% of
frequent moviegoers. So when it comes to the bottom line, which drives content choices
for production and distribution in Hollywood, why aren’t we seeing more diversity?

Narration: The LA Times recently published an article on the topic called, “Hollywood’s
diversity problem beyond Selma”. The piece cites UCLA’s Report, which shows that
“minorities are underrepresented compared to their make up of the US population by 3

12

to 1 as movie leads and film directors” (Vargas and Yang 2015).

Narration: As Kenneth Turan says, audiences want to see themselves on screen. But to
me it’s not just about including more minorities; it is also a question of how they are
portrayed. What types of minority images are we being shown and are they an accurate
reflection of the American minority experience?

Narration: Shereen Marisol Meraji reports for NPR’s Code Switch team race and
popular culture. Meraji tackles social issues and politics surrounding race and gender as
well as entertainment and media’s myopic view of minorities.

SM: A lot of the stories we are doing about people of color have to do with really hard
hitting issues like immigration or child poverty, or these issues which paint a picture of
people of color as poor needy uneducated, etc. etc. and the list goes on and on. But
actually no, there are middle class people who are African American who go to Aspen
and Ski. And we never talk about them. Why don’t we ever talk about them? I don’t
know! I think about that a lot especially when I’m pitching stories like this because I
know people are gonna [sic] be like well “who cares?” like why “Why do we care about
that?” Go do a story about failing schools in south central LA. I think that these are
important stories too I mean they paint a full picture of what it means to be a person of
color living in the United States. It’s not all… we are in struggling schools and we’re
poor. That’s part of it. It’s not all just about inequality, that’s part of it. But you know we
are just doing normal things like going skiing and being middle class.

13

Interviewer: You did one about Juan Pablo, the first “ethnic” Bachelor. So interesting to
me about The Bachelor piece because on the surface it’s this fluffy melodramatic TV
show but the power that it could have to see someone of color fall in love on TV and be
just like you and me and it’s not all about inner city struggle and poverty that sort of level
of representation is missing.

SM: of course they use the lightest skinned dude ever.

Interviewer: Yea blonde hair and blue eyes. He had an accent and that’s it!

SM: Yea that kind of killed me.

Narration: Shereen is half Puerto Rican, Half Iranian- American and as a part of NPR’s
Code Switch team, she’s dedicated to telling stories with a fresh perspective on life as
the “other” in America. Her pieces are about difference, but also sameness, what
connects us in human experiences. Hers are the types of stories that Hollywood should
further embrace.

SM: I think it’s stereotype busting. If you go through all of those stories, every single one
of those stories is busting a stereotype in some way. Like black middle class skiers,
Minnie Ripperton who was an amazing soul singer but she did rock and she was just
out doing her own thing and very psychedelic and you can’t put her in a box. Desiree

14

Akhavon who is Iranian American but she’s bisexual
2
. Stephen Yeunn who is this sex
symbol from the Walking Dead but he’s Asian. Like all of these people bust stereotypes
in some way. Or Aisha Tyler, I did a profile of Aisha Tyler, she’s a total stereotype
buster
3
. She’s really nerdy African American she did grow up poor but her whole thing is
do I have to tell people I grew up poor? Why is my black card getting revoked because I
speak properly and she has a lot to say about being a Sci-Fi nerd and being black? And
I’m drawn to those stories and maybe it’s because I don’t fit into a box but I like taking
these stories of stereotypes of people of color and just exploding them.

Narration: But, perhaps Hollywood and movies in particular just don’t know how to
navigate the tricky cultural terrain of representing the “other” in a way that seems
authentic and true to that experience.

SM: Shonda Rhimes has figured it out! Which is just do stories that we all love, stories
about passion and love and intrigue and sex and death and murder and then just put
brown people in there.

Interviewer: Yea in a way it’s sort of like normalizing otherness, because when you go
to a hospital, there are people of every color. And that’s just life, so why can’t art look
more like life?

Narration: Clearly Hollywood has a problem representing otherness. It can be a

2
Desiree Akhavon is an actress, writer and film director.
3
Aisha Tyler is a comedian and actress.

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frightening and daunting task. But embracing it is what got me to embrace E.T. I was
compelled to embrace his “difference” his “otherness”. For a kid that can be risky. And
based on the conversations buzzing about Hollywood, risk is a fear factor here as well.
Janet Yang is Chinese American and a prominent Hollywood film producer and
entertainment consultant.

JY: Because they look to see what’s worked in the past, and if there haven’t been
movies with minorities in lead roles that have been extremely successful of course it’s
going to make them more reluctant to be the pioneers in that area, so there is
unfortunately a conservative strain that prevails.

Narration: But television seems to be telling a different story. While UCLA’s report states
that in the 2012-2013 season, barely, only 6.5 percent of actors in lead broadcast
scripted TV roles were minorities (Hunt and Ramón 2015, 13). But in 2014 alone
multiple new TV programs starring minority leads and ensemble casts have premiered,
showcasing a different perspective. What’s more, these shows haven’t shied away from
risky topics on race, but rather, have faced them head on.

Narration: USA Today predicted that freshmen ABC Comedy Black-ish has the potential
to “change the TV landscape” (Blanco 2014). The anything but traditional sitcom
features a successful African American family in suburban LA. It stars Anthony
Anderson, Tracy Ellis Ross and Laurence Fishborne along with a quartet of child actors
to round out the Johnson family. Their weekly capers present and subvert stereotypes

16

of what it means to be black in a post racial society.

(Sound clip from Season 1 trailer of ABC’s Black-ish, ABC 2014)

Narration: Each week introduces provocative social commentary tackling issues like
giving the sex talk, gender roles in parenting and spanking. The conflict of the pilot
episode arises when Anthony Anderson’s character attempts to force his post-racial
family to retain the identity of blackness – whatever that means.

(Second sound clip from Season 1 trailer of ABC’s Black-ish, ABC 2014)

Narration: So television and shows like Black-ish are blending comedy and drama while
casting minorities as leads to bring diverse faces into our homes. I asked Kenneth
Turan about the discrepancy here when drawing comparisons to film.

Interviewer: TV on the other hand is incorporating so much diversity with shows like
Black-ish and Fresh Off the Boat (ABC). Do you have any idea why it is that film hasn’t
embraced that?

KT: Well one reason why it is is that film left this big gap. There’s an adult audiences
that is interested in stuff like this, there’s a diverse audience that’s interested in stuff like
this so television said, “You know, we can fill this gap”. Also, it comes into your house,
which is a different thing. A movie exec once said to me that I’m not gonna [sic] make

17

movies anymore where you have to dynamite people off of their sofas into the theater.
It’s hard to get people to go to the movie so it’s easier to access this stuff on TV. And
people are interested and they don’t have to take the risk and drive 30 miles to get to
the theater.

Narration: It is true that in 2014, TV programs showcased a noticeably more colorful
racial tapestry of characters when compared to film. But UCLA’s most recent report
published in February of 2015 monitored the 2012-2013 TV season and concluded that
81% of the 700 lead roles examined were played by white actors and that minorities
would have to double the number of scripted roles to gain equal representation (Hunt
and Ramón 2015, 19). Turan says that if Hollywood were a sane business, it would
include more racial and gender diversity and the numbers back up that statement
4
.

Narration: One USC Annenberg study confirmed that the nation’s increasing diversity is
not reflected in Hollywood’s portrayal of American life. The study, led by Dr. Stacy
Smith’s Media, Diversity and Social Change initiative examined on-screen portrayals
and behind the camera diversity in Hollywood for 2013. It concluded, “top grossing films
do not fully represent the audiences they target” and that, “stories and storytellers
should reflect viewers who hail from different cultural backgrounds” (Choueiti, Piper,
Smith 2014, 9).

Narration: UCLA’s report concludes that there is an economic discrepancy here as well.

4

Interview
with
Kenneth
Turan
on
2/24/2015

18

Movies and TV programs with casts that more closely reflect the diverse make up of
America, the study found, posted higher ratings and box office returns (Hunt and
Ramón 2015, 47-48). But because of Hollywood’s skew toward representing the
majority, this message isn’t getting through.

SM: And are we just not bumping into each other enough in the world?

Narration: Here again is NPR’s Shereen Marisol Meraji.

SM: Are we re-segregating so that only white people interact with white people and
brown people with brown? I mean people in the executive suite they must just talk with
other white people and just see other white people and live in neighborhoods with only
white people so that is their reality?

Narration: According to Meraji, the men, in the executive suite are a long way from
embracing the “otherness” of the changing cultural landscape in America. Janet Yang
who is a member of the Academy speaks of her own experience.

JY: I go to a fair number of Academy events, there’s luncheons [sic], screenings… and I
am often the only person of color. It’s sad. I look around and I just don’t think twice
anymore I am so often in rooms where I am the only person of color and certainly in this
crowd of Academy members yes it’s definitely older and it’s definitely very white.

19

Narration: The UCLA report states that film studio heads are 94 percent white and 100
perfect male and television network heads are 96 perfect white and 71 percent male
(Hunt and Ramón 2015, 2).

Narration: These numbers are striking and bleak, however the study’s co-author Ana
Christina Ramon says that the increasing success of diverse programming like Jane
The Virgin, Empire and How To Get Away with Murder will motivate Hollywood to
change its tune (NPR Staff 2015).

Narration: Janet Yang has won both Golden Globe and Emmy awards for her producing
career she’s worked closely with Steven Spielberg and Oliver Stone and in the 1980’s
represented three major Hollywood studios brokering relationships in reintroducing
Hollywood films into the Chinese marketplace. When I asked her why diversity in film
matters, she spoke of the global cultural impact.

JY: And the fact that Hollywood has dominated this industry with larger than life size
images since it’s very existence, and the fact that these images have played in tiny
villages, in big cities and every continent in just about every country in the world means
that this is what people have been imbibing. So many more times than not, the world
order that is presented is with the white man on top, the bad guys are the other.

Narration: The famed film critic Roger Ebert once wrote, “Films are the most powerful
aid to empathy” (Ebert 2002, 6). And in his new book, Not to Be Missed: 54 Favorites

20

from a Lifetime of Film, critic Kenneth Turan quotes Ingmar Berman saying that film
“penetrates ordinary consciousness”. Turan says that movies provide the possibility for
a deeper level of connection.

KT: You know it’s so frustrating. I mean film really is as powerful a communicative
device and empathy creating device as Roger says as we have. It can do enormous
things. And we in this country use it to sell toys. So I can just be frustrated and I can you
know try and get other people frustrated to in hopes that they will listen. But one of the
reasons I wrote that book is to shake people these are good films, they are interesting
films, you’ll like these films they’ll mean something to you. It’s sad but that’s what’s
happening, but one thing we can do is we can patronize these films that are good and I
think that’s important to do. Because if they make money they’ll make more of them, if
they don’t make money, they’ll make less of them. It’s just that simple.

Interviewer: So money talks.

KT: In Hollywood, for sure.

(Reintroduce music from the original soundtrack to E.T., “The Flying Theme” composed
by John Williams, 1982)

Narration: Money does talk, and at some point Hollywood will have to listen. Audiences
are the driving force behind this creative industry of movies and television and in 2015

21

our audience is made up of people who want to see themselves on screen. People, who
want to be inspired, informed, provoked, and mesmerized. Hollywood’s reticence to
embrace the “difference” of America is no match for the cultural demand of our diverse
audiences. I was afraid of E.T. because he looked different than me, sounded different
than. He was the cultural “other”, like I was as a child. Embracing him was a risk but the
moment we had our connection at Universal Studios on that thrilling ride showed me
that just because someone or some-thing is different, does not mean you should be
afraid. But maybe it’s time for us all to be a little less afraid to take risks.

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Conclusion
Hollywood’s diversity problem is systemic and complex with minorities in race, gender
and sexual orientation being largely underrepresented on both the big and small screen.
UCLA’s 2015 Hollywood Diversity Report sponsored by the Ralph Bunche Center for
African American Studies shows that while minorities make up 36.3% of the US
population, they are 44.1% of frequent moviegoers, proof that they are a major
contributor to profit for the industry (Vargas and Yang 2015) . As LA Times film critic
Kenneth Turan puts forth, “If Hollywood were a sane business” it would make sense to
include more diversity both on screen and in executive positions of power.

Professor Stacy Smith of the USC Annenberg School for Communication, conducted a
similar study monitoring race and ethnicity in six hundred Hollywood films. That study
came to the conclusion that, “Despite the demographic changes at work in the US, films
still portray a homogenized picture of the world,” and that, “Top grossing films do not
represent the audiences they target” (Choueiti, Piper, Smith 2014, 9),

NPR reporter Shereen Marisol Meraji believes that inclusion is not the only solution, but
that the accurate and varied representation of minorities is paramount for making
entertainment and popular culture more reflective of America
5
. In addition, Meraji,
whose journalistic career is dedicated to breaking stereotypes set forth for minorities,
believes that exposing ourselves to people who look and live differently can be an
answer, especially in the executive suite. The UCLA Hollywood Diversity Report shows

5

Interview
with
Shereen
Marisol
Meraji
on
3/9/2015

23

that 94% of Hollywood movie studio CEO’s are white (Hunt and Ramón 2015, 2).
Additionally, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the voting body that
awards each year’s coveted Oscars) is 93% white, 76% male with an average member
age of 63 (Horn, Sperling, Smith 2012). In 2015, all actors nominated in supporting and
lead categories for the Oscars were white and all nominees in the directing category
were male with only one minority (Alejandro González Iñárritu from Mexico). So lack of
diversity in the industry’s top positions of power mirrors the disparaging results we are
seeing when monitoring diversity film and TV.

Kenneth Turan believes that it all comes down a fear factor associated with risk for
Hollywood executives
6
. An age old excuse for producers has been that “diversity
doesn’t sell” but with new research disproving the claim – as UCLA’s report concludes
that films with diverse casts post higher box office returns – the economic imperative to
change the status quo is stronger now than ever. Ultimately, the interviewees and data
concur, Hollywood must change, if not only for the bottom line, but also for the quality of
entertainment as a social communicative device.

6

Interview
with
Kenneth
Turan,
2/24/2015

24

References

87
th
Academy Awards, Directed by Hamish Hamilton. Produced by Neil Maran and
Craig Zadan, ABC, original air date February 22, 2015.

Bizet, Georges. Dat’s Love (Habanera) In the film Carmen Jones, 20
th
Century Fox,
1954.

Black-ish, Season 1 promo, ABC 2014.

Blanco, Robert. “ABC’s Black-ish Explores Subtle Shades on Race Issues”. USA
Today, September 23, 2014.

Carr, David. “Barely Keeping Up With TV’s New Golden Age”. The New York Times,
March 9, 2014.

Ebert, Roger. The Great Movies. New York: Broadway Books, 2002.

Edens, Roger. Bonjour, Paris! From Funny Face, Paramount Pictures, 1957.

Kern, Jonathan ed. Sound Reporting. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2008.

Meraji, Shereen Marisol (reporter). Interview with the author, Los Angeles, CA, March 9,
2015.

NPR Staff, “Diversity Sells, But Hollywood Remains Overwhelmingly White, Male”.
NPR, February 28, 2015.

Ramón, Ana-Christina, Dr. Darnell Hunt. “2015 Hollywood Diversity Report: Flipping the
Script”. University of California Los Angeles Ralph J. Bunche Center for African
American Studies, 2015.

Sims, David. “The Oscars Haven’t Been This White in 19 Years”. The Atlantic, January
15, 2015.

Smith, Doug, Nicole Sperling and John Horn. “Unmasking the Academy: Oscar Voters
Overwhelmingly White, Male”. The LA Times, February 19, 2012.

Smith, Stacy, Choueti, Marc, Pieper Katherine. “Race/Ethnicity in 600 Popular Films:
Examining on Screen Portrayals and Behind the Camera Diversity”. University of
Southern California, 2014.

Spielberg, Steven. E.T. DVD. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Los Angeles: Universal
Pictures, 1982.

25

Turan, Kenneth (film critic). Interview with the author, Los Angeles, CA, February 24,
2015.

Williams, John, The Flying Theme From E.T. Universal Pictures, 1982.

Yang, Janet, Jose Antonio Vargas. “Hollywood’s Diversity Problem Beyond Selma” The
LA Times, February 19, 2015

Yang, Janet (film producer / entertainment consultant). Interview with the author, Los
Angeles, CA, March 21, 2015

Abstract (if available)

Abstract The purpose of this project is to investigate the current landscape of Hollywood film and TV in the wake of recent media outcries for more diversity both on screen and in executive positions of power. I have interviewed entertainment industry insiders as well as media journalists whose insights and perspectives complement raw data and statistics from UCLA’s 2015 Hollywood Diversity Report, which show that Hollywood’s offerings poorly reflect the diverse makeup of the nation’s population. So, why is accurate cultural representation important? Movies and television are powerful communicative devices with the potential to form and shape how we view ourselves and the world around us. Also in terms of economics, studies referenced in this report have shown that minority audiences contribute enormously to movie box office revenue and television program ratings. So why have studios and networks not embraced diversity to an extent that matches the make up of our population? This radio documentary will explore current and age-old trends within the industry’s business model as well as the burgeoning social and cultural imperatives for a change in Hollywood.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Williams, Lattiah Myah (author)

Core Title Hollywood's 2015 diversity problem and the powerful impact of film and television

School Annenberg School for Communication

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program Specialized Journalism (The Arts)

Publication Date 04/09/2015

Defense Date 04/09/2015

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag actor,Blackish,culture,director,diversity,E.T.,Entertainment,Ethnicity,film,filmmakers,Hollywood,OAI-PMH Harvest,producer,Race,representation,TV,writer

Format application/pdf (imt)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Lowe, Karen (committee chair), Murphy, Mary (committee chair), Tolan, Sandy (committee chair)

Creator Email lattiahw@usc.edu,myah.ariel@gmail.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c3-544865

Unique identifier UC11298457

Identifier etd-WilliamsLa-3265.pdf (filename),usctheses-c3-544865 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-WilliamsLa-3265.pdf

Dmrecord 544865

Document Type Thesis

Format application/pdf (imt)

Rights Williams, Lattiah Myah

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Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

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