Media Diversity Examples

Diversity is all around us. Our nation’s demographics are increasingly diverse. This has engendered significant progress in media representation, reflecting more diversity including race, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, and other marginalized groups. However, there is still much room for improvement. Even when there is visibility, sometimes those portrayals are one-dimensional, stereotypical or negative. This deficiency contributes to a lack of understanding of and empathy for different people. It can contribute to our biases, both implicit and explicit. That makes it even more important to represent those groups.

Examples include:

In 2014, Ms. Marvel, AKA Kamala Khan, was introduced as the first Muslim-American superhero.

In 2018, the film Black Panther, made by a Black director and starring a mostly African-American cast, was the second highest-grossing film that year.

In 2019, Halle Bailey, an African-American actress, was selected for the role of Ariel in the upcoming remake of The Little Mermaid.

Over the past several years, there have been several popular TV shows featuring transgender characters and story lines including, Orange Is the New Black, Pose, I am Jazz, Shameless, and more.