Day: July 3, 2020

From the 80s and 90s, where advertisers first made moves to include children from a diverse range of backgrounds, to more recent efforts to include children with differing abilities, meaningful representation is becoming a more conscious decision in the minds of those who create and produce media.

The danger in this space is that media creators move to be inclusive in their practices for the sake of “ticking a box”. To explore this conundrum of how to be inclusive without veering into tokenism we spoke with Wa’qaar A Mirza, Co-Founder and Global CEO of Safi Ideas, the production company behind children’s animation Zayn & Zayna’s Little Farm.

While there is a huge range of preschool children’s television available, Mr Mirza said, diversity is often a carefully crafted illusion, designed to mimic inclusivity, rather than embrace it.

“Characters,” he said, “are portrayed with different personalities, looks, jobs and responsibilities,” and while this is engaging for children “it fools us into thinking we are being diverse, but it doesn’t fool the children, and we need to ‘get real’ when it comes to true diversity.”

From the Latino family who are devout Catholics with a reverence for Abuelita (Grandmother) to the Asian family where parents are strict and rice is served with every meal, while producers hint at diversity, there is much more that can be done, Mr Mirza said.

“Children need to be given the opportunity to watch and identify with a truly diverse cast of characters,” he added. More importantly, these representations need to have diverse characteristics.

Often, media creators will attempt to work around this delicate balance for younger children with the use of animals or puppets, helping children to address difference in a non-confrontational way. This theory, Mr Mirza believes, “puts a wall up” making it confusing for children to learn about the diversity they see all around them.

“At Safi Productions, it’s obvious to us that broadcasters, rather than being unwilling, are simply wary of representation,” he said, noting that the fear of ‘getting it wrong’ leads to many simply opting to create content utilising non-human characters to represent ‘diversity and inclusion’.

Rather than being respectful, this wall of non human characters “makes a mockery of diversity,” Mr Mirza said.

We know this from the content we see and the challenging conversations we’ve had with networks,” he added. “We believe it’s vital that all children, from as early an age as possible, are exposed to multiple cultures, see a mix of people, and also see themselves represented positively.”

“Using human characters makes the content relatable, but it does not need to be any less interesting” he emphasised, saying that carefully crafted content for children will help them to “see themselves and the people around them in a way that embraces diversity and prompts questions they can discuss with their parents”.

Read full on THE SECTOR

Wa’qaar A Mirza, co-founder and global CEO of Safi Ideas, whose UK-based production outfit is behind the children’s animation Zayn & Zayna’s Little Farm, discusses the responsibility that broadcasters must accept in delivering children’s content with real diversity.
Broadcasters certainly like to talk the talk about diversity and inclusion in their content, however, there is still a noticeable lack of true representation that requires drastic attention – particularly when it comes to children’s content.
The call is now for them to walk the walk: not only are broadcasters falling short of understanding their vital role in shaping the minds of future generations, but they are also missing out on a massive commercial opportunity that can come from truly introducing diversity in their children’s programming content.
While attempts to deliver inclusive content have certainly been made, there have also been many missteps. Particularly, as broadcasters begin to understand that narratives are best told by the people they represent – rather than attempting to shoehorn concepts into inauthentic, tokenistic narratives. Look around, the industry is now screaming out for minority talent, ideas and content. But why does this not appear to extend to children’s content? Particularly preschool content (0-5 years)?

We are all spending an increased amount of time with our children… it has resulted in an increased awareness of the lack of real-world diversity delivered across children’s content
Wa’qaar A Mirza

There’s a very real relationship between self-worth and media representation, particularly of marginalised groups. Research shows 22% of ethnic minorities did not feel like a part of British culture and this has risen very slightly to a quarter (24%) since the Brexit referendum*. With the evolving makeup of British culture, broadcasters now have a greater than ever responsibility to deliver inclusive children’s content, with meaningful representation.
Children need to be given the opportunity to watch and identify with a truly diverse cast of characters. More importantly, these representations need to have diverse characteristics. We have gone beyond the need for equal casting on male/female hero characters. Non-white characters should occupy leading roles too, and not be limited to the role of sidekicks.
Learning from the lockdown
As we navigate the Covid-19 pandemic, we are all spending an increased amount of time with our children, connecting with other parents and sharing resourceful links to occupy our families as we work from home. This is a good thing – it has resulted in an increased awareness of the lack of real-world diversity delivered across children’s content.
Lockdown has been a revelation to us: our animated TV series Zayn & Zayna’s Little Farm is in pre-release on YouTube and, with no promotion, we are seeing viewer numbers increase exponentially.
And, perhaps because we are a welcome surprise, we have received lots of feedback from viewers thanking us for delivering content that allows future generations to see versions of themselves, their communities and their friends represented. Notably, our values of respect, self-worth, community and mindfulness are being welcomed early on.
At Safi Productions, it’s obvious to us that broadcasters, rather than being unwilling, are simply wary of representation. The fear of ‘getting it wrong’ leads to many simply opting to create content utilising non-human characters to represent ‘diversity and inclusion’.
This ultimately makes a mockery of diversity. We know this from the content we see and the challenging conversations we’ve had with networks. We believe it’s vital that all children, from as early an age as possible, are exposed to multiple cultures, see a mix of people, and also see themselves represented positively.
We truly understand the trepidation when it comes to delivering content that incorporates our narratives, however, we ask that broadcasters look beyond their existing talent and explore the content creators from different backgrounds available to them – those who are best equipped to tell their narratives from their perspective.
Providing teachable moments
Zayn & Zayna’s Little Farm, our English-language animated TV series, is dedicated to delivering teachable moments in kindness, mindfulness, family, and community and has been received in homes all over the world.  We’ve had really insightful responses from families and we’ve been very grateful that people have been open and honest with us. We appreciate this is new and unprecedented, and are all agreed it’s vital for a generation of children to see different types of British families.
The UK’s demographic is increasingly diverse. Our children are growing up in mixed culture families and socialising with multiple ethnicities and religious groups. This affords broadcasters and production companies a huge opportunity for significant progress in media representation, reflecting increased diversity including race, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, and other marginalized groups. We have seen companies take brave steps in fundamentally changing the way content is delivered with streaming services from Netflix, Apple and now BBC and ITV with BritBox. Now we need to see the same bravery and investment with the content – particularly for the younger viewers who are the future.
*Chuka Umunna, MP, forwarded research piece by Opinium Research, 2018
Read full on TELEVISION BUSINES INTERNATION 

The broadcasters have a vital role to positively help shape the minds of future generations, by providing a diverse-rich content

Diversity and cultural inclusion within the media is certainly a hot topic, many feel representation is at an all time high; however, this winding path has quite a journey ahead until individual differences are truly represented and viewed as the norm within the media.
The media influences us all, and it starts from a very early age. From the music we listen to, the books we read and the films we watch; to the TV we view and games we play – we breathe it all in and exhale views and opinions taken from this multitude of influential sources. It is therefore crucial that characters, themes and messages within this stream of content, are inclusive to the diversity that forms our world as much as possible.

We have seen an increase in inclusive content across the media over recent years, indeed, in India, 44% of people believe the ethnic, religious, and racial makeup of their country has become more diverse over the past 20 years, as per Pewter Research Centre 2018. However, when it comes to children’s content, these attempts are still very much represented through tokenistic narratives rather than including the underrepresented individuals and cultures they are created to represent.

There is still a gaping hole in children’s content featuring a fair representation of multiculturalism, ethnicity, race and genders, and it is the responsibility of broadcasters to help fill this gap. The broadcasters have a vital role to positively help shape the minds of our future generations, by providing the diverse-rich content we so desperately need. Children should be given the opportunity to watch and identify with a truly diverse cast of characters. The inclusion of this diverse content should be viewed as the norm – and not a rarity that is noted for inclusivity. This can only be achieved by broadcasting content that features diversity as an everyday normality, not highlighted as a point of differentiation.