Abstract

Entertainment industry is considered to be the most profitable industry after the industrial revolution took
place. The global Media & Entertainment (M&E) market reached $1.9 trillion in revenues in 2016, according to
the 2016- 2020 Entertainment & Media Outlook by PricewaterhouseCoppers (PwC), and is expected to expand
by nearly five percent to reach just under $2 trillion in 2017. Such a huge value for the revenue however doesn’t
wash away the shortcomings and internal issues of the country. This paper gives a bird eye view on the gender
issues of the media and entertainment industry. The purpose of the study is to combine all the issues to make a
clear rational image of gender related factors of media and entertainment industry. Gender issues here are
described with the present context and a comparative study with the past years have been established to show
a graphical change of gender issues, However, the issues were taken into view from various comments by experts
of the respective field to complete a generous study. The paper contains the payment issues, some statistics of
discrimination and also focused on some negative issues related to gender difference. It also gives the idea of
how men and women are benefited by the industry and what are the marginal gaps in between. Finally, the paper
gives some exclusive suggestions to overcome the internal negative issue of the industry to make the rate growth
constantly exponential.
 Introduction

The journey of media industry started at an exponential shape after second world war. The continuous
growth of computer and related media has lead the way to develop some new segments. Within this time
the way and production category began to reach the top of development. The industry reached the best
part when the availability of digital communication started to flow like a transprent bucket of water

The media and entertainment industry consists of film, print, radio, and television. These segments
include movies, TV shows, radio shows, news, music, newspapers, magazines, and books. The top 10
media and entertainment companies are The Walt Disney Company, 21st Century Fox, Direct Group
Holdings (DIRECTV), Time Warner Inc., NBC Universal, National Amusements Inc., CBS Corporation,
Viacom Inc., News Corporation, and TEGNA Inc. The U.S. media and entertainment industry contributes
more than $632 billion to the economy and represents a third of the global industry.

The radio and television broadcasting industry is composed of two different types of companies. There
are public service broadcasters, where the funding is through public money, and commercial broadcasters,
which are funded through advertisement spots. Radio and television broadcasters create and/or acquire
content for broadcasting, such as entertainment, news, talk, and other programs. Many television
broadcasters use digital broadcasting to transmit pictures that have higher resolution, known as high-
definition television (HDTV). They can transmit a single HDTV broadcast or transmit several
conventional broadcasts. This “multicasting” means they can transmit a music concert, for example, from
several different camera angles on the same channel. Viewers then select the view they’d like to see on
their television set. Other types of broadcasters include cable and subscription or fee-based programs that
have a more narrow focus, such as sports, education, and youth-oriented programming.

The print industry consists of publishing companies that produce newspapers, magazines, books,
journals, and periodicals, their online versions, and directories, mailing lists, software publishing, and
video games. As the North American Industry Classification Systems described it, “Publishers may
publish works originally created by others for which they have obtained the rights and/or works that they
have created in-house.” Published works can be in one or more formats, such as traditional print, eBooks,
CD-ROM, or proprietary electronic networks. The world’s five largest publishers, known as the “Big
Five,” are Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin Random House, and Simon &
Schuster.

The film industry is mainly composed of large, multinational corporations, major studios, and
independent studios. Many of the top-name film companies are part of larger media conglomerates that
also include television, cable, newspaper, and magazine organizations. Within the film industry are
subsectors: film production, film exhibition, and film post-production. The top movie companies include
21st Century Fox, Comcast Corporation, The Walt Disney Company, and Viacom Inc.

In general, media and entertainment jobs include reporters, correspondents, and broadcast news
analysts; writers and authors; editors; photographers; graphic designers; translators; film and video editors
and camera operators; broadcast and sound engineering technicians; announcers; producers and directors;
and performers—from actors to musicians and composers. The workers who are behind the scenes and
focused on the business side are public relations people, talent agents and representatives, marketing
managers, entertainment lawyers, and distribution workers, among others.
 We can still access our media and entertainment the old fashioned way, if we choose, by reading
publications on paper and watching TV shows on our televisions. But thanks to the Internet and growth
of digital content, media and entertainment is now available to us 24/7 through computers, smartphones,
tablets, and eBook readers. Wherever we are—whether in an airport, restaurant, at a concert, or doctor’s
waiting room—we can go online nearly any time to watch TV shows and movies, listen to radio shows,
read books and newspaper articles, and more. Digital video recorders (DVRs) also free us from being
glued to our televisions at programs’ air times—we can record the shows we like and watch them when
it’s convenient, which is great for us but not so great for advertisers counting on prime-time viewers to
see their commercials.

Human resource components of business industry:

In management we found 6 M man, money, material, market, machine, method. Only the man criteria
contains the whole people who are related with the production of media contents. The function of a film
producer and a radio jockey is same in context to logical view. However, the introduction of graphical
and advanced system cinematography have brought radical changes. But whatever changes took place the
main factor of media and entertainment industry is still human resource factor. Actor, actress and
producers along with his team are the principal component of this whole system. The role is same only
they are named by different names in different fields of the industry,

Gender issue of media and entertainment industry:

Even in this 21st century discrimination and role issues are found everywhere from family to job
market. Media industry was never an exception to the facts and it is still a subject for concern regarding
the issues. The comparative study shows the prominent issues as given below.

 In news media, women form a minority of sources and subjects, and are
particularly under-represented as experts.
Women also make up a minority news reporters and presenters, with very little
improvement globally since 2000.
Women’s under-representation in the news media workforce worsens at senior
decision-making levels, and this form of gender inequality is significantly worse
in the private sector than in the public sector.
Women are less likely than men to have a speaking or leading role in films, and
are more likely to be portrayed in sexualized ways.
Over the last ten years, women have consistently made up less than 10% of
directors of top-grossing films.
Female characters in video games are significantly more likely than male
characters to be portrayed in overtly sexualized ways.
Men disproportionately dominate jobs in the gaming industry, and particularly
technical core content creation roles.
In audiovisual advertisements, women’s overall speaking time and screen time is
significantly less than men’s. Research generally indicates the continued
prevalence of traditional female stereotypes in advertising, and of portrayals of
women as decorative or sexualized.
 Our neighboring country India with Bollywood even faces the sexual points of media issues where now a days
sex scenes and violent representation of women have increased to a level beyond measure.

Scenario of media administration in context to gender issue:

If we look at the admin sections to presentation sectors we find the rational differences with respect to gender
issues. The issue started years ago and the situation is not changing that extent. Even we saw in U.S.A election that
the most developed country in the world was not ready to accept a female leader where as the situation in media
and corporate life is more tough and a matter of concern. We will look at some statistics now:

1. First focus will be made on an issue of governing bodies of unions

Proportions of members of unions and union governing bodies who are women
(2001 – 2012):

Year 2001 2006 2012

Union members >33% 45.3% 42.1%

Members of union governing bodies <20% 39.3% 36.2%

Source: EFJ and IFJ (2012) Survey Report on Women in Journalists’ Unions in Europe

2. The nest scenario is based on the film characters

Proportions of speaking film characters who are women (2007-2016)Z:

Year 2007 2008 2009 2010 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Women 29.9 32.8 32. 30.3 28.4 29.2 28.1 31.4 31.4

Source: Smith, S., Choueiti, M. and Pieper, K. (2017) Inequality in 900 Popular Films: Gender, Race/Ethnicity, LGBT,
& Disability from 2007-2016

3.The third criteria is the sexual representation of female by directors

Proportions of film characters whose portrayals are sexualised, by gender
(2016)

Sexualisation indicator Sexually Partial or full Referenced as

revealing clothing nudity attractive

Women 25.9% 25.6% 10.7%

Men 5.7% 9.2% 3.2%

Source: Smith, S., Choueiti, M. and Pieper, K. (2017) Inequality in 900 Popular Films: Gender, Race/Ethnicity, LGBT,
& Disability from 2007-2016

4. One of the major focusing point was the ratio of male and female diorectors.

Proportions of film directors who are women (2007 – 2016) :

Year 2007 2008 2009 2010 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

Women 2.7 8 3.6 2.75 4.1 1.9 1.9 7.5 4.2

5. Even game characters were not free of discrimination

Proportions of games with female and male main characters (1999 and 2015):

Gender of main character 1999 2015

Female main character 10% 9%

Male main character 70% 32%

6. The most important point was the roles made by male and female in different European country in
higher posts of media
Women in decision-making roles in the media workforce (Austria, Malta, Sweden,
and the UK)

Level Role % / Numbers AT MT SE UK EU

Strategic Chief Percentage of women 33% 0% 25% 25% 16%

level Executive
Officers Total positions 3 2 4 4

Board Percentage of women 25% 38% 54% 33% 25%

Members
Total positions 44 8 35 36

Operational Chief Percentage of women 0% 0% 50% 0% 21%

level Operating
Officers Total positions 3 4 4 4

Operational Percentage of women 32% 19% 48% 30% 32%

Managers
Total positions 22 21 27 23

Heads of Percentage of women 41% 0% 41% 22% 36%

Directorate/
Unit Total positions 27 8 70 32

Heads of Percentage of women 33% N/A 50% N/A 32%

Department
Total positions 6 0 10 0

Total percentage of women at all levels 30% 16% 46% 27% 30%

Source: European Institute for Gender Equality (2013) Review of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action
in the EU Member States

The above tables gives us a clear idea about the roles and structures of media and entertainment industry for the
distribution of posts and important aspects. A clear and prominent gap was found in all case of measured points.

Although situations are changing but the are not changing in fast way. The process is much slower than the
exponential growth of the industry.
Payment Discrimination:

Except roles there are gaps in payment criteria also in case of film and other entertainment industries.
The payment issues are prominent and issue of concern for every members working in the system. The
average gender pay gap in the UK is 18.1%, which the BBC is well below. This is the scenario of
developed countries so what can be in developing and least developed countries. The world’s highest-
paid actress, Lawrence, made $52 million in the 12 months to June 2015—an impressive number until it
is compared to the $80 million banked by Robert Downey Jr., the world’s top-paid actor. But it is not
only the number on the paycheck that is the problem: Women are also greatly underrepresented on the
big screen, leading to fewer opportunities to make money, an issue that Reese Witherspoon brought up at
the American Cinematheque Awards in October: “Women make up 50% of the population, and we should
be playing 50% of the roles on the screen.”

That is a dream that is far from a reality. According to a report by the Annenberg School at USC’s
Media, Diversity & Social Change Initiative released in August, only 28.1% of characters in 2014’s top
100 films were female and of that percent, only 21 had a female lead or co-lead. So we can easily
understand the facts and faces of the industry from this very data.
Introduction