Fall Colors: Prime Time Diversity Report 2003-04

Published by Children Now, this 16-page report summarises the presentatons and findings from the Sixth Annual Children & the Media Conference.

From the Introduction:
"Today, 40 percent of American youth ages 19 and under are children of color, yet few of the faces they see on television represent their race or cultural heritage. Similarly, though females slightly outnumber males in the real world, prime-time television continues to present a world that is overwhelmingly male. Therefore, television not only fails to accurately reflect the world in which young people live, but it also sends a message that some groups of people are more valued by society and worthy of attention than others.

Five years after Children Now's first study of diversity on prime-time television, Fall Colors 2003-04 aims to present both an overview of the state of racial and gender diversity for the current prime-time season and a five-year longitudinal report on the progress, or lack thereof, that has been made towards achieving a truly diverse prime-time world."

Key Findings

• During the Fall 2003-04 season, a youth watching prime time on any of the six major television networks would most likely see.
• The number of Latino characters has increased to more than six percent of the 2003-04 prime-time population, up from 4% in 2001-02. Among opening credits characters, the percentage increased threefold, from two percent to six percent. More than half of all prime time shows now include at least one Latino character.
• The percentage of Asian/Pacific Islander characters has not changed over the past five years, and the percentage of Asian "opening credits" characters actually declined, from two percent in 1999-2000 to one percent this season.
• Nearly two-thirds of all characters were male (65%) while one-third were female (35%), a proportion unchanged in five years.
• Female characters were younger than male characters: females were more likely to be aged 19-29 than any other age group, while males were more likely to be 30-39. Older women were difficult to find on prime-time television.
• Nearly half of Arab/Middle Eastern characters (46%) were criminals. Both Latinos and Middle Easterners were more likely to be criminals than to have a professional job such as a doctor or a judge.
• There were no Native American characters in any episode in the study's sample.
• The 8 o'clock hour, when children are most likely to watch television, is the least diverse hour on prime time.
• Sitcoms, children's favorite program genre, are the least diverse shows in prime time.