Investigating Inequality Across Film and TV with the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative

We’re mixing things up today with a conversation about the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative and their research on representation in film and TV. We spoke with Katherine Pieper, PhD, the program director at the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. As the leading global think tank studying inclusion in media, the initiative examines the prevalence and portrayal of groups such as girls and women, people of color, the LGBTQ+ community, people with disabilities, and mental health conditions. They analyze who is on-screen and behind the camera across film, episodic, and short film content.

As part of our conversation, we discuss the results of one of their latest studies – Inequality in 1600 popular films examining portrayals of gender, race, ethnicity, LGBTQ+, and disability in Films from 2007 - 2022, as well as dive into the Inclusion List, and learn more about their new study on Indigenous representation in film.

#representation #inequality #representationmatters #LGBTQ #behindthecamera #disabilityrepresentation #research #mentalhealth #womeninfilm #inclusion

ABOUT BRAAAINS PODCAST: Exploring the power of representation on screen, Braaains is an expert-led podcast about mental health and disabilities and how they’re portrayed on television and film. Sisters Heather & Sarah Taylor have been talking about mental health and their brains their whole lives and found it frustrating to find the mental illness and disabilities experienced by them and their loved ones not always portrayed in accurate ways. As entertainment professionals, they wanted to talk to people with lived experience of everything to do with the brain (including mental health and disabilities) and find out how they wished film and television could portray that part of them. Braaains would love people to see a personal side to mental health, disabilities, and everything that impacts our brains -- and see how much authentic representation matters on film and TV. This podcast makes people feel less alone, encourages them to question the representation they see on screen, and, if they have the power to do so, help create and advocate for more accurate and authentic representation as #representationmatters!