{"id":1431,"date":"2016-02-26T11:45:11","date_gmt":"2016-02-26T16:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/?p=1431"},"modified":"2017-05-03T18:09:29","modified_gmt":"2017-05-03T22:09:29","slug":"diversity-in-the-media-laudable-or-the-new-norm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/diversity-in-the-media-laudable-or-the-new-norm\/","title":{"rendered":"Diversity in the Media: Laudable or The New Norm?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s 2016. Shonda Rhimes is taking over our TV screens with her various ABC shows \u201cScandal\u201d, \u201cGrey\u2019s Anatomy\u201d and my personal favorite \u201cHow To Get Away With Murder\u201d. If you didn\u2019t read that in Annalise Keating\u2019s voice, I\u2019m judging you.<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a reason why Rhimes is inundated with invitations to speak at university commencements, conferences and talk shows: her shows are phenomenal. One of the key elements of her work that gets the most praise is the representation of different sexual orientations and races.<\/span><\/p>\n

Critics and fans applaud Rhimes for casting actors that represent different identities and she\u2019s considered a trailblazer for doing so. There\u2019s no denying that Rhimes is a meritorious creator but is it because she\u2019s \u201cdiversifying\u201d television? <\/span><\/p>\n

Our world looks different than it did 50 years ago. Hell, it looks different than it did <\/span>10<\/span><\/i> years ago. As our ever changing society represents different skin tones and identities, our media should as well. Television, film and theatre needs to be accessible to a contemporary audience. It\u2019s become too \u201cconventional\u201d to cast all white actors even though that isn\u2019t a realistic representation of our world. As Rhimes often says, she\u2019s not \u201cdiversifying\u201d television, she\u2019s \u201cnormalizing\u201d it. When people praise Rhimes\u2019 shows for their diversity, are they suggesting it\u2019s suprising or unheard of? Or are they appreciating the fact that she, unlike a startling number of show-runners, is representing a realistic world? <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

If you take a look around campus, you\u2019ll be able to point people out that look different than you. As fellow classmates and Earth dwellers, the least we can do is acknowledge and celebrate differences. We shouldn\u2019t alienate others because they look, speak or feel differently than we do. Likewise, showrunners and filmmakers should make a point of emulating real life in their art. <\/span><\/p>\n

What can we do as students to help promote acceptance?<\/span><\/p>\n

For starters, we can view diversity as the norm rather than an \u201cout of this world\u201d concept. If we don\u2019t bat an eye when we see an all white cast, we shouldn\u2019t bat an eye if a cast features people of all skin tones, sizes and sexual orientations.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s 2016. Shonda Rhimes is taking over our TV screens with her various ABC shows \u201cScandal\u201d, \u201cGrey\u2019s Anatomy\u201d and my personal favorite \u201cHow To Get Away With Murder\u201d. If you didn\u2019t read that in Annalise Keating\u2019s voice, I\u2019m judging you. There\u2019s a reason why Rhimes is inundated with invitations to speak at university commencements, conferences […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":17732,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-student-life"],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/diversity-1.jpg",830,553,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/diversity-1-216x144.jpg",216,144,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/diversity-1-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/diversity-1.jpg",830,553,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/diversity-1.jpg",830,553,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/diversity-1.jpg",830,553,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/diversity-1.jpg",830,553,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Diane Cardoso","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/author\/diane-cardoso\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"It\u2019s 2016. Shonda Rhimes is taking over our TV screens with her various ABC shows \u201cScandal\u201d, \u201cGrey\u2019s Anatomy\u201d and my personal favorite \u201cHow To Get Away With Murder\u201d. If you didn\u2019t read that in Annalise Keating\u2019s voice, I\u2019m judging you. There\u2019s a reason why Rhimes is inundated with invitations to speak at university commencements, conferences…","featured_media_src_url":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/diversity-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}