Month: December 2021

Increasing on-screen representation of historically excluded populations remains a directional North Star for the media industry, and progress is being made. That progress, however, is measured using a very general lens. While the U.S. is home to a growing richness of many identity groups, it takes more than just broad strokes to shift on-screen representation to capture our diverse stories and cultures on screen.

How people identify and perceive themselves is of the utmost personal importance, second only to how people see themselves in the world around them—including in media. General ethnic and multicultural labels are unable to convey the uniqueness of each individual, yet the deep richness of our population remains categorized by a handful of broad, generalized terms, such as White, Black and Asian American.

The downside of representation and inclusion through these generalized terms is that it inhibits people from seeing their true selves reflected in the world around them. In the 2020-2021 TV season, for example, on-screen Asian and Pacific Islander talent had a 2.9% of screen across broadcast television. People who identify as Southeast Asian, however, saw far less of themselves when they tuned in.

South Asians are, however, increasing their prominence in Hollywood, with Kingo debuting as the first South Asian superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Indian-born Anupam Tripathi delivering a breakout performance in Netflix’s Squid Game. For South Asian men, their increasing portrayals in TV and film have brought their share of screen in line with their share of the U.S. population (2.3%). The same cannot be said for South Asian women, whose share of screen stands at just 0.3%—despite progress in recent years by stars like Mindy Kaling, YouTuber turned late-night talk show host Lilly Singh, Never Have I Ever’s Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, and Avantika Vandanapu, who most recently starred in the 2021 Disney Channel original movie Spin.

Importantly, representation isn’t just about being involved or included. True representation involves accurate portrayals–not generalistic stereotypes. For South Asians, many on-screen portrayals have focused on specific character types, such as nerds, cabbies and convenience store managers like The Simpsons’ Apu. That’s why it’s important to understand how audiences see the characters and roles they engage with on TV and in film—to assess whether representation strides are being made in tandem with those associated with inclusion.

News and reality are the most inclusive genres across the top 10 most inclusive programs for South Asians, highlighting a significant shortage across the wide range of other genres, especially those depicting everyday life—topics that would help break stereotypes and appear more authentic. For example, superhero Kingo in Marvel’s Eternals lives on earth as a Bollywood star, but the movie drew criticism from netizens claiming the film’s Bollywood dance sequence was outdated and shouldn’t have featured English lyrics.

Opening more doors to talent behind the camera is one way to ensure that more stories are told with authenticity. Writer/director Urvashi Pathania, who won the 2021 APA Visionaries Short Film Competition for her film Unmothered, said “I decided to make this film because I didn’t want to play into the South Asian stereotypes. So often, South Asian diaspora films portraying India can veer on poverty porn and I didn’t want to tell a story that didn’t feel authentically mine.”

Avoiding stereotypes is on the path toward the North Star. In a recent interview, casting director, producer and podcast host Keertana Sastry discussed how diversity and authenticity can be accurately portrayed by simply casting South Asian/Asian/BIPOC people for roles. In that way, she says you’re simply “adding a cultural lens without really having to bring it up. Automatically, you are telling a story that becomes universally relatable, because specificity is relatable.”

As the ease of casting representative talent meets the themes of real life stories, these portrayals on-screen will more accurately illustrate the rich lives of the diverse audience—making them feel seen.

For additional insights, download our recent Being seen on screen report.

Nielsen has long been known for counting everyone. Just as we are the measurement standard for the media industry, we are committed to bringing the industry standard for measuring representation and inclusion in programming. As part of our Diverse Intelligence Series, our new report Being Seen on Screen: The Importance of Quantity and Quality Representation on TV explores the state of inclusion and representation in television programming. 

Our goal: help the media industry create inclusive content, powered by diverse content creators.

This year, we have expanded our report from the top 300 to the top 1500 programs across broadcast, cable and streaming. We have also included deep dives into new identity groups: Native Americans and people with disabilities. 

Almost all the major identity groups have some representation in all platforms, but streaming is filling in the gaps for the groups with the lowest share of screen, especially Native Americans and Asians.

Representation by numbers is important—and so is the context when an identity group is seen on screen. Additionally, the themes in media content help shape perceptions and change beliefs.

The data underpinning Nielsen’s Inclusion on TV report is pulled from Nielsen’s recently launched Gracenote Inclusion Analytics. And we’ve made the Gracenote Inclusion Analytics interactive tool available below to help those across the media landscape learn more about:

• Inclusion by gender and ethnicity
• Inclusion by program genre e.g. Comedy, Drama, Reality, News 
• Inclusion across broadcast, cable and streaming platform

How to get started 

1. Click on the blue headers to select the information you want to explore
2. Click on the buttons on the left to choose the platform: Broadcast, Cable, SVOD (streaming video on demand) or Total (combined view of all platforms)
3. Select the identity group on the right drop down list

How to read the results

• Hover over each of the bars for the specific value. If the value is under 100, that identity group is underrepresented.
• For Inclusion Opportunity Index (IOI)* and Genre: the mid-point (100%) indicates where on screen representation of an identity group (e.g. women) is on par with their representation in population estimates. 
• For Share of Screen (SOS)**: The % indicates representation of each identity group in the top 10 recurring cast members in a program.

*Inclusion Opportunity Index (IOI): compares the SOS of an identity group (e.g. women) to their representation in population estimates

**Share of Screen (SOS): Identity group (e.g. women, LGBTQ, Hispanic) representation among the top 10 recurring cast members

Using this solution gives media ecosystem participants visibility into representation of on-screen talent across gender, race, ethnicity and sexual orientation compared with audience diversity. Gracenote Inclusion Analytics also empowers content owners, distributors and brands to make better informed decisions around inclusive content investments.

Interested in more insights? Read our latest Diverse Intelligence Series report to learn how the quality and context of representation matters. 

Explore the full Being Seen on Screen 2021 report: The Importance of Quantity and Quality Representation on TV

Download now

As platforms diversify—and populations in our communities evolve—audiences are expecting the stories they see and hear across media to reflect their diverse voices and experiences. According to our latest Diverse Intelligence Series report, Nielsen data for the 2020-2021 TV season shows that among the top 1,500 programs in the U.S. (across broadcast, cable, and streaming), 78% have some presence of racial, ethnic, gender or sexual orientation diversity. 

But while diversity within content choices is increasing, audiences still feel the representation is not accurate. Meaning, just because a group is represented on screen, it doesn’t mean that group is being represented the way they want to be seen. With 42.2% of the U.S. population racially and ethnically diverse, and people increasingly exploring and defining their personal identities, the media has an opportunity to create more content to better portray all of us. 

The last 18+ months have been turbulent across all industries—particularly for CPG brands and retailers in the food and beverage spaces—and surging e-commerce demand irreversibly shifted the landscape. Many that leaned into marketing fared relatively well, but those who maintained the status quo or went dark have struggled to keep pace. Compounding the pandemic’s challenges, supply chain disruptions may be signaling an arduous holiday season is ahead.

With that, Nielsen has identified three areas of focus advertisers in the CPG and retail industry can leverage in 2022—budgeting and growth, measurement and targeting—to mitigate the impact of external circumstances and drive success for brands. Download our Navigate the Top Challenges Facing CPG and Retail Advertisers in 2022 report to learn how these areas of focus can bolster your brand’s success in 2022 and beyond.