This
following week I observed and recorded all the TV shows that I watched. I don’t
watch much TV but the shows that I did watch were History Channel’s “The Bible”,
as well as “Swamp People”, and ESPN’s “Sportscenter” and “First Take”. All of
these shows except for one contained ethnic diversity which I thought was
pretty interesting, but there is probably a good reason for it as I will
explain later. For the most part, all of ESPN’s shows contain a wide range of
ethnic diversity with equal roles for all races. African American, White,
Asian, and Latino men and women all hold a role in regular ESPN shows. I did
notice that some ethnic groups were only represented in minor roles though. The
History Channel shows were much less diverse. There were also no latinos on either
of these shows. Overall, I believe that these shows, for the most part, make an
attempt at creating diversity.
The
History Channel’s, “The Bible” contains African American and white characters
but no latinos. I feel like this is because the producers of this show are
trying to remain as true as possible to the original bible stories, therefore,
not casting latino actors. There are a few African Americans on this show
(Sampson, 3 kings), but for the most part the show contains only white people,
male and female. “Swamp People” was a different story though. This is a reality
show of Bayou families that hunt alligators for a living. Since this show is a
reality show, they’re no actors or actresses. This show contains no diversity when
it comes to race but there is a female team of a mother and a daughter that run
their own boat and hunts gators. History Channel sort of has its hands tied
with these two shows when it comes to implementing diversity, but ESPN on the
other hand does not and does a very good job of this. “Sportscenter” has a wide
range of ethnicity in its cast. The anchors include women such as Lindsey
Czarniak, to latinos like Robert Florres, to African americans such as Stuart
Scott. Not only do the anchors contain diversity but the field reporters do as
well. Almost every ethnicity holds a major role in Sportscenter. “First Take”
also contains diversity with African Americans, women, and white men. Although,
in this show the African American women is not a major cast member, just the
mediator as Stephen A Smith and Skip Bayless debate the days hottest sports
topics. This is about the only thing you could point out to not being
completely diverse in ESPN’s shows.
I
had never really observed TV in this light but I found it kind of interesting
to analyze shows to see how ethnically diverse they were. ESPN is currently
owned by Disney so seeing the ethnic diversity was not much a surprise. On the
other hand however, it is easy to see why History Channel shows do not contain a
lot of diversity when you stop and think about it. I don’t believe that any of
the roles of any of the members of these shows falls into a stereotypical
category. History Channel aside, ESPN does a very good job of implementing
ethnic diversity of its cast into all roles of their shows. Women hold the same
roles as the men in all of the shows I observed. I think that overall we have
come a long way in society and there really is not any racism or segregation
when it comes to casting members of TV shows.
I never have thought about the diversity on ESPN. After reading your blog however I absolutely makes sense the diversity they do in fact have.
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