★★★★★ 0/5

Children’s TV continues to outshine Adult Drama in key diversity groups

Report finds more characters of First Nations, European & non-European backgrounds in Kid's TV than Adults.

5
Leave a comment

Children’s programs continue to have a higher level of cultural diversity than adult drama, following the second diversity report by Screen Australia.

Diversity has increased since the last report in 2016 in terms of First Nations representation and characters from non-European backgrounds.

Seeing Ourselves 2: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Australian TV Drama examined the diversity of 287 main or recurring characters from 38 children’s titles between 2016 and 2021, and how this compares to the Australian population.

The level of First Nations representation was higher among main characters in children’s titles (9.1%) compared to First Nations representation in general drama titles (7.0%) and has increased from 7% in children’s titles in the 2016 study. Conversely, while almost two in three main characters in children’s drama were Anglo‑Celtic (62%), this is down from three in four in the 2016 study (75%) and is lower than Anglo‑Celtic representation among main characters in general drama titles (72%).

However, while there was greater cultural diversity in children’s titles, more work needed to be done to centre disabled main characters: just 3.8% of main characters in children’s titles were represented as disabled compared to 6.9% in general drama titles. Disability representation among main characters in children’s TV has potential to normalise disability for younger audiences and screen practitioners interviewed for Seeing Ourselves 2 highlighted the importance of screen representation for young disabled people.

LGBTIQ+ representation was also lower among characters in children’s titles (3.1%) compared to general drama (7.9%). Part of LGBTIQ+ representation is romantic and sexual attraction, which is more likely to be prominent in storylines for adolescents and beyond. However, it has been suggested that LGBTIQ+ screen representation is important for young people who have LGBTIQ+ family members or who are navigating their gender and/or sexual identity. For example the successful and multi‑award‑winning series, First Day, tells the story of Hannah, a school aged girl who has transitioned and is navigating life in her new school and conversations about her gender identity with her friends and family.

Graeme Mason said, “Australian children’s drama is world-renowned, and we’re proud to see successful shows with authentic representation such as First Day and Hardball winning not only the hearts of viewers but also International Emmy Awards. We know that diverse children’s programming resonates with audiences here and overseas, and we want to see even more of this on our screens.”

5 Responses

  1. Could this be another demography issue, where there is more diversity in the younger populations? It was one of the reasons The Wiggles became more diverse, to reflect the more diverse audiences.

    Having said that, the changes or progress still needs to be made by the productions. And there still needs to be marketing towards groups that are underrepresented to encourage talent into the industry.

    1. It could be at least partilly another demography issue. Today’s younger populations are much more diverse than older populations. I’m a mid-90’s kid, and while my generation was already more diverse than my parent’s generations (early 50’s and early 60’s), the generations that are coming up behind me are even more diverse. I would expect future generations to continue becoming more diverse as we move toward a majority-minority world.

  2. While children’s television is outshining adult drama with First Nations, European, and Non-European, adult drama is outining children’s television in disabeled and LGBTIQ+. While there is room for improvement across all categories and television genres, it is good to see that both of the genres featured here are both doing well in some areas.

Leave a Reply