WHY ARE SO FEW BLACKS STARRING ON TV?
Although for years executives from NBC, CBS, ABC and FOX have expressed the desire to have programming better mirror the racial makeup of the U.S., of the 26 new prime-time programs to debut this fall on the four major broadcast networks, only one (CBS' "City of Angels") features a black in a leading role. Observers say that because of cable, the Internet and the presence of the UPN and WB networks, the four majors have turned to spending their resources on gaining young, White viewers. The Census Bureau shows that Whites are still account for approximately 70% of the American population between the ages of 18 and 54 -- the demographic advertisers desire most. Broadcasters are trying to hold onto White viewers because, allegedly, that is where advertisers will get the biggest bang for their bucks.

Research shows that even though blacks make up 12% of the population, they make up 40% of television viewers. The Center for Media and Public Affairs points out that blacks represented only 10% of all characters on sitcoms and dramas on the four major networks last season, down from 17% in the 1992-93 season. The New York Times reported that since blacks watch more television than other groups, advertisers won't pay networks as much for that audience because they are easier to reach. There's a great disparity between what Blacks and Whites are watching on TV: "The Steve Harvey Show" is the top-rated show among Blacks, but ranks 127th with White viewers. Viewers are encouraged to let the networks know about their outrage when quality programs like "Frank's Place," 413 Hope Street" and "Under One Roof" are canceled.
[Source: Jet, August 9, 1999 (pg. 55)]

FADING AWAY? HISPANICS DEMAND TO SEE THEIR FACES ON MORE NETWORK SHOWS AND NOT JUST IN THE BACKGROUND
After the NAACP pointed out the lack of African-American actors on television, a Hispanic coalition consisting of La Raza, the National Hispanic Media Coalition and the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts has expressed its own demand for more Hispanic characters on TV. National Council of La Raza President Raul Yzaguirre pointed out at the Latino Media Summit held in late July that one of every 10 faces in the U.S. is Hispanic, but only one out of 100 faces on television is Hispanic. At that same summit, Hispanic leaders agreed to develop a year-long national strategy to combat the virtual absence of Hispanic images on television. [see story below]

Hispanic actors -- Cheech Marin, Jimmy Smits, Hector Elizondo, Edward James Olmos, Benjamin Bratt -- have played major roles on television, but the percentage of Hispanic actors doesn't accurately reflect the makeup of the melting pot of America. Cheech Marin, the star of Nash Bridges said, "Two, three seasons ago I was standing on the stage of the Alma Awards, when I was the master of ceremonies, and I looked out in the audience. There was Benjamin Bratt, Hector Elizondo, Jimmy Smits, myself -- all these guys stars of hour shows," Marin says. "More importantly, playing the guys who put the bad guys in jail, not the bad guys."

Scott Sassa, NBC West Coast president, said, "I don't think I'm capable of telling you how Latinos feel about how they're portrayed or what they see on television. But I can tell you how I feel about seeing Asian-Americans portrayed on television. Growing up, seeing David Carradine as a Chinese guy (on "Kung Fu") ticks you off," Sassa said. He wants to see more characters who are role models rather than loading up the background players to reach a quota.
[Source: The Fresno Bee, August 29 (H1), Author: Rick Bentley]

STUDY SHOWS NEWSROOMS REMAIN WHITE, MALE
On July 8, in conjunction with UNITY 99, a conference of minority journalists was held in Seattle Washington, the Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA) released the results of a study it commissioned on employment diversity in radio and television news. The "Women and Minorities Survey"conducted at Ball State University showed that although progress is being made in certain areas, the people who write, produce and report the nations' news are still predominately white and male. According to the survey, minorities account for about 19% of television newsroom staff and only 11% of staff in radio newsrooms. The study also reported that the overall percentage was down slightly from last year, although it was noted that minorities are gaining some ground in penetrating the upper management tiers. For instance, in 1996 only 10% of assistant news directors were minorities, whereas this year that number has risen to 18%. The percentage of executive producers has also climbed to 16% from 7% three years ago and percent of minority assignment editors rose from 14% to 22%.
[Source: The Forum Connection (Civil Rights Forum) July 15, Author: Jessica Brown]

NAACP BLASTS TV NETWORKS' FALL SEASONS WHITEWASH
Kweisi Mfume, President & CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) blasted the four major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox) for their lack of diversity in the new fall season prime time line-up. He said, "When the television-viewing public sits down to watch the new prime time shows scheduled for this fall's line-up, they will see a virtual whitewash in programming. This whitewash exists because none of the 26 new shows slated for the fall season have a minority in a leading or starring role. The NAACP Television & Film Diversity Initiative will launch an aggressive, comprehensive and sustained campaign directed out of a NAACP Hollywood Bureau slated to open in October. The Bureau will serve as a watchdog to report on and monitor diversity throughout the television and film industry. The campaign may include litigation and civil action.
[Source: NAACP]

LATINO COALITION LAUNCHES NATIONAL NETWORK 'BROWNOUT'
From September 12th to the 25th, a coalition of ten Hispanic organizations has urged the nation's 31 million Latinos to boycott ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC to protest the "continued invisibility of Latin actors on TV." "We're saying enough is enough.There's been a historic invisibility of Latinos," said Lisa Navarrete, the deputy vice president for the National Council of La Raza. Navarrete said there is only one Latino person, Martin Sheen, in a leading role in the 26 network shows premiering this fall. Latinos are 11 percent of the population, but only 2 percent of all network TV characters. The "National Brownout" was launched during the National Council of La Raza's annual convention in late July. Representatives of the sponsoring organizations say they are angry that few Latinos are on the fall lineup of new shows-even though Hispanics watch more television on average than the general public. According to the "Engaging Television in English y en Espa-ol" study conducted by the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute, a think tank headquartered in Southern California., U.S. Latinos watch about four hours of TV a day, 45 minutes more than non-Latinos. Navarrete said leaders of black, Asian American and Latino groups met in New York last Friday to discuss ways they could collectively pressure the networks to include more minorities in its programs.
[Source: Politico, August 2, Author: Julie Amparano]

PALE, BY COMPARISON
A long look at the demographics of the fall TV line-up from the Tribune's TV critic. Steve Johnson points out the difference between local newscasts -- which always seem to be delivered by a multiracial mix of men and women -- and prime time entertainment which is filled by predominately white actors and actresses. If the broadcast networks are narrowcasting, they seem to be targeting just the majority white audience -- if we are to accept that people tend to watch programs that feature their own race. The NAACP and a coalition of Latino organizations started protesting the "whitewashing" of prime time TV this summer. Of the nearly three dozen new series starting this fall on the six broadcast networks, only six have minorities in leading roles. Yvette Lee Bowser, an established TV writer, said, "There's a very unfortunate reality that we have to deal with this particular season...But it existed last year, too, and the year before....And I think that people...are considering the kind of impact, the social impact, that homogenized television will have on our culture." Johnson asked; Why does it take the NAACP and media critics to awaken a TV network to something so obvious as the fact that television, as a primary social force, will come under scrutiny with regards to hot-button issues such as race? TV has "increasingly become only white," said UPN President Dean Valentine, and is "becoming increasingly divorced from the American way of life." Valentine said he's "always felt that it was good business and it was responsible business for us to try, over time, to reflect the way the country looked...There's a huge African-American middle class....We're one big capitalist country and I think it's a silly and shortsighted business decision to alienate an entire segment of the population."
[Source: Chicago Tribune (Sec 5, p.1), Author: Steve Johnson]

RACE; THROUGH AN ACCURATE PRISM
Adonis Hoffman says it is time for Hollywood to change. Of 1,000 top executives in the television industry -- including writers, directors, producers and agents -- only a handful are black. White males exert most of the control over a $20+ billion industry that influences the culture, commerce and values of virtually every nation in the world. When Hollywood projects an image, it becomes global reality. Television and movies possess the inherent power to define what the world sees and how it should feel about it.

The absence of minorities from Hollywood's executive suites means they are powerless to control their own global reality. When the NAACP chided Hollywood for not featuring minority actors in leading television roles, it was only half right. The more accurate measurement, perhaps, would be the level of control black executives have over film and television budgets. Hoffman believes that opening up network and studio boardrooms to qualified minorities would have an astounding effect both within and beyond the broadcast industry. With the power to define their characters, black writers and producers would be liberated to present a richer pastiche of the African American experience to the global audience. No longer would black images be filtered through the lens of formulaic stereotypes that so often result in one-dimensional characters -- usually criminal or comedic. The presence of minority executives in decision-making positions at networks and studios also means that ancillary economic benefits and revenue in the industry could begin to find their way to minority communities. Minority agents, attorneys, accountants, advertising executives, insurers, caterers and contractors would be poised to receive a reasonable share of commerce from the networks simply because a minority executive was conscious of their existence.
[Source: Los Angeles Times, August 8 (M1), Author: Adonis Hoffman (Director of the Corporate Policy Institute)]

IS TV'S RACISM BLACK AND WHITE OR JUST GREEN?
The total prime-time network television audience is 84.4% white, 11.8% black and 3.8% other, according to the A.C. Nielsen rating service. Those numbers offer a powerful temptation for advertisers to ignore minority audiences. Follow the money, network executives say, and it will lead you back to the advertisers who pay the bills. "Even though we don't have conclusive evidence, there is a lot of qualitative evidence showing a certain amount of pervasive racism on the parts of advertisers and advertising agencies," said Kofi Ofori, research director for the Civil Rights Forum, a Washington-based organization.

UPN, the smallest network, has the largest percentage of black viewers, 32% of its total audience, according to Nielsen. The WB is at 27%, Fox 13%, CBS 12%, ABC 11% and NBC 8%. "Black shows" also have very little crossover appeal to the much larger white audience. As a result, reaching minority groups through prime-time network advertising is becoming increasingly inefficient, ad agencies say. Last year, only six of the 20 most-popular shows among black viewers -- "E.R.," "Monday Night Football," "60 Minutes," "Touched by an Angel," "NYPD Blue" and "CBS Sunday Movie" - ranked among the 20 most popular programs with white audiences, according to Nielsen.

One TV producer suggests that the ultimate solution may be bringing in more minorities in roles *behind* the camera -- particularly as writers, directors and producers. Steven Bochco, a prominent TV producer, says, "From a network point of view, I don't think racism is an issue. I think economics is an issue. When things that you try don't succeed, there's a reluctance to try them again. When they do succeed, you try them over and over."

Some media critics contend that even advertisers are beginning to see added value in supporting into diverse shows. Ratings -- sheer numbers of viewers -- might not be everything, after all. "Advertisers are very [angry] about what network television is doing in the way of delivering their consumers. They are simply not doing the job," said Ken Smikle, president of Target Market News, a Chicago-based research firm that monitors black marketing and the media. "Advertisers are looking more and more to tap into ethnic markets of all kinds, and network television is going in the exact opposite direction. That's why the ratings game continues to be a zero-sum game for them: They keep charging more for less."
[Source: The Plain Dealer, August 15 (1A), Author: Mark Dawidziak & Tom Feran]

DIVERSE IS BETTER, SCREEN ACTORS GUILD ADS TELL THE NETWORKS
The Screen Actors Guild President Richard Masur said SAG wants to "challenge" the myth that there aren't enough qualified performers among groups that are underrepresented on television. In Los Angeles SAG launched an advertising campaign that it says is designed to convince entertainment industry executives that diverse casting is the right thing to do and makes good business sense. The first ad appeared in the Hollywood Reporter, which is targeted to entertainment executives. "You have a demand. We have a supply," the ad read. "We also hope to convince industry insiders that diversity can improve their bottom line," said Masur.
[Source: Washington Post, August 12 (C07), Author: Lisa de Moraes]

CRITICISM OF ALL-WHITE SHOWS SPURS TELEVISION TO ADD MINORITY ROLES
With the new television season starting, network executives and producers are responding in alarm to the strong criticisms from black and Latino groups about the absence of nonwhites in most of the network series. Kweisi Mfume, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and his organization bought 100 shares in each of the companies that own these networks "so we can go to board meetings and raise the kind of hell and the issues that we think are necessary," he said. "We're certainly glad that some of the networks have seen fit to add minorities to their programs," said John C. White, the NAACP.'s director of communications. "But we still think it's even more important that minorities are hired in decision-making positions -- and when we say minorities we're not just talking African-Americans. We think there's an insufficient number of Latinos, Asian-Americans and Native Americans on television." The evidence is clear that the protests over the new all-white shows have stung executives and producers, resulting in a rush to add minority roles."There were hardly any African-American roles in the pilot season and the shows that got picked up," said Karen Goldberg, a talent agent at the Don Buchwald agency. "Now, suddenly, they're definitely adding ethnic characters." Marcia Shulman, senior vice president for talent and casting at 20th Century Fox Television, which produces 22 shows, flew to New York last week to interview actors "of every ethnicity" for next year. Not only is this studio and others adding minority characters and quickly shifting plot lines, but networks are also looking ahead to next year, partly to avoid the problems of this year. As to the current last-minute spate of hiring of minority members, Steven Bochco said he disagreed with anyone who called the step cynical. "It doesn't matter to me if you hire as an afterthought," he said. "It doesn't matter if you hire me for the wrong reasons. At least you've done it."
[Source: New York Times, September 20 (A1), Author: Bernard Weinraub]

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