Respondents told YouGov that British television is characterized by a disproportionate number of ethnic and sexual minorities
Ethnic minorities and members of the gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community are over-represented on television, according to nearly half of viewers polled by YouGov. The survey comes amid a deliberate push for “diversity” among advertisers.
About 45% of British viewers said there were more ethnic minorities on television than the population, according to a poll summary published by The Times on Tuesday. Only 26% believed that ethnic minorities were underrepresented.
A similar number, 44%, said gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people are overrepresented on the small screen.
YouGov conducted the same survey in France, Italy, Spain, Chile, the United Arab Emirates and Australia, and found that viewers in all of these other countries were more likely to say both groups were underrepresented.
On internet forums, social media platforms, and online comment sections, viewers have long complained about the disproportionate air time given to minorities, particularly since the rise of the “wake up” ideology in mainstream culture over the past decade. While there is little reliable research to support or refute these claims, several studies indicate that the demographics shown on television may not be representative of reality.
A 2017 survey of 500 companies found that marketing departments were so concerned about being accused of racism or homophobia that they used fewer white and straight models and actors in their ads. A third of these companies said they had employed fewer straight white people in the past year, and a third of those said they had done so in order to “Preventing Perceived Discrimination”.
A study by the Common Sense Campaign last year found that the BBC’s ‘The Responder’ made almost half of the Merseyside police force black or Asian, despite the fact that both groups combined accounted for less than 1% of the population. force officers. . The studio found the same problem with several other BBC series and blamed the state broadcaster “The Distortion of Modern Britain”.
Blacks make up about 3% of Britain’s population, Asians (a term that includes Middle Easterners in the UK) 7%, and gays less than 4%. However, a 2022 poll by the Campaign for Common Sense found that Britons think 20% of the population is black, 17% Asian and 30% LGBTQ. I determined the organization “Disproportionate representation of minority groups in the media” as a factor that could explain this discrepancy.
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Source: NEWS.com
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