Title: The Importance of Representation in Film and Media | by Lauren Washington | Medium
Headings: The Importance of Representation in Film and Media
The Importance of Representation in Film and Media
Content: Representation matters so that the full story can be told, and so you don’t have a one-sided story that isn’t a fair representation of a diverse population. The media needs to represent the society that it serves because if people don’t see themselves, then it’s almost like a lack of care that’s communicated to people. There has to be some diverse voices that represent everyone in the society that can speak from the voice of those people because there are different issues and different things that are of importance to us. On Capitol Hill, for example, the photographers that shoot there and the newscasters that are shown are disproportionately white males. I think that there needs to be more of an effort to seek out diverse voices and diverse representation with a conscious effort (2018). Overall, there needs to be an increased amount of heightened pressure to ensure that networks and producers do not leave marginalized groups out, or showcase them in harmful, inferior, or undesirable ways. Moreover, filmmakers and media depictions have been negligent in including people of color, women, LGBTQ individuals, and those with disabilities on-screen and off-screen. In this current day and age, Hollywood continues to exclude people of color from television and film. Within the industry, there is this dynamic of white America being the majority owners and majority movers and shakers of creative ideas in Hollywood (Burgin 2018). Prominent African American filmmaker, Spike Lee, has long been a voice championing the importance of showcasing the positive realities of the black experience.