>Every British TV Show To Be Monitored for ‘Diversity’
Some of Britain’s best-loved and most watched programmes, including EastEnders and Coronation Street, are to be monitored for their ethnic, gender and sexual orientation diversity as part of a new scheme to be rolled out eventually across the whole of British television.
The BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and Sky are all taking part in Project Diamond, a scheme which will gather data on the gender, ethnicity, disability, age, sexual orientation and gender identity of all key staff working in television production, from the actors to the sound technicians.
All of the information will be fed into an encrypted computer system which will anonymise the data and allow trends to be monitored. The organisation behind Project Diamond, the Creative Diversity Network (CDN) has said that initial data will present a broad picture analysis, but it hopes to be able to monitor individual shows within time, The Guardian has reported.
The BBC’s flagship soap opera EastEnders, which depicts life in the East End of London, came under fire two years ago when it was noted that its cast of characters were almost twice as white as, and considerably younger than, the real population of East London. At the time Diane Coyle, the acting head of the BBC Trust, said it would be “daft” to make the show a “perfect replica” of the real East End, but added it was “important to ask whether the BBC can do more in its popular output to provide an authentic portrayal of life in modern Britain”.
At around the same time, actor and comedian Lenny Henry called for legislated targets on the number of black and minority ethnic (BAME) people in television and extra funding for BAME projects.
“The BBC charter promises to represent the UK, its nations, regions and communities. BAMEs are an integral part of GB’s communities – we deserve to be represented too."
breitbart.com/london/2016/08/25/whole-british-television-set-monitored-diversity-new-scheme/
