I have been working in television now for over twenty years and if there is one thing I have learnt is that we are a competitive bunch. We might try and hide it and in typically middle-class fashion conversations between my TV colleagues are sprinkled with self-deprecation but the competitive edge is never far away. We all know who has won which award, we know the ratings of our programmes and we know who is hot and who is not.
I’ve recently been thinking if there is a way to turn that natural competitiveness to our advantage when it comes to increasing diversity in the media?
I think we could increase diversity in front and behind the camera with something as simple as a smile.
Four years ago the Sacramento Municipal Utility District in America had a problem. They wanted people to reduce their energy consumption. They had been trying for years trying all different tactics but nothing had worked and people’s energy consumption had slowly kept creeping up.
But it turns out TV people are not the only naturally competitive people. Residents in Sacramento want to keep up with the Joneses - or in this case quite literally keep up with their neighbours.
To tap into this competitive nature the Municipal Utility began sending out statements to customers rating them on their energy use compared with that of neighbours in 100 homes of similar size that used the same heating fuel. The customers were also compared with the 20 neighbours who were especially efficient in saving energy.
Customers who scored high earned two smiley faces on their statements. “Good” conservation got a single smiley face. While customers whose energy use put him in the “below average” category, got frowns.
The results were amazing. Not only did the customers who received a frown reduced their energy to try and earn a smiley face, the customers with smiley faces reduced their energy even further. They clearly enjoyed the feeling “being in the lead”.
Right now most broadcasters keep records of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) employment of their in-house production departments and of the larger independent companies. Some of the broadcasters also keep figures for on-screen representation.
Despite these figures being kept, as an editor of a department I have very little empirical evidence of how well I am doing compared to other departments within the BBC and with indies. I have anecdotal evidence by just walking around other productions but to be honest it is more guess work.
I think most editors find themselves in a similar situation. We actually don't know how well we are doing - let alone whether we need to improve or not.
Therefore could TV take a leaf out of Sacramento's book with one small simple change potentially having massive consequences:
When a programme is green lit by a broadcaster the production company could receive a simple note with a smiley face or a frown indicating how well they have been doing for the last twelve months in their diversity employment and representation in front of and behind the camera.
The smiley rating should come at the green lighting stage as this is the point that productions then begin to staff up.
I believe that most people in television want to do the “right thing”. We want to be seen as good employers. With our natural competitiveness we also don’t receiving a bad grade or 'frowny' face for anything - especially when we know it’s in comparison to our colleagues.
In theory a smiley face or frown should not change how grown people behave. But if it works for electricity bills I think it is worth a shot when it comes to increasing diversity in the media.
So let's all smile a bit more and avoid those frowns :-)
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