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How Netflix is Helping Underrepresented Creators

underrepresented creators
On August 23, 2022, Netflix announced that the Netflix Fund for Creative Equity was coming to Africa. Over the past few years, Netflix has endeavored to be a platform that supports marginalized groups that have underrepresented creators in the entertainment industry. The Netflix  Fund for Creative Equity was the result of the efforts. The scope of its work first covered the U.S.  followed by the U.K. and Canada, and now includes the African continent, beginning with Western and Central Africa.

The Creative Equity Scholarship Fund

Netflix launched the Fund on February 26, 2021. It was the result of a two-year research study by Netflix and Dr. Stacy L. Smith of the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, a think tank that promotes research, advocacy and action for inclusion amd diversity in the entertainment industry. While great strides were occurring concerning gender equality, Netflix was lagging when it came to the representation of race, ethnic groups, the LGBTQ community and people with disabilities. As a result, Netflix provided $100 million for investment within the span of five years to create more opportunities for existing underrepresented creators and train new ones in the entertainment industry. The Fund also aims to support other organizations fighting for diversity inclusion by partnering up with them.

Netflix in Africa

In 2022, $1 million is supporting qualified students from five media schools and universities focused on television and film production. The Netflix Creative Equity Fund provides the scholarship and has partnered with Dalberg, a New York-based international consulting firm to manage its implementation. The schools in partnership with the fund are located in four African countries. These include:

  1. Nigeria: Nigeria is internationally well-known for the Nollywood entertainment industry. Therefore, it is unsurprising that two out of five film schools that Netflix is supporting are based in Nigeria. The schools include the National Film Institute in the city of Jos and the Pan-Atlantic University in Lagos. Both institutions have successful alumni in the African entertainment industry such as Chinedu Ikedieze & Tosin Ajibade.
  2. Ghana: The National Film and Television Institute of Ghana began in 1978 and is located in the capital city Accra. It draws a wide range of students from across the continent from 10 other African states including the kingdom of Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Nigeria, Gambia and Benin.
  3. Benin: l’Institut Supérieur des Métiers de l’Audiovisue otherwise known as ISMA began in 2006 in the city of Cotonou, Benin. It produces approximately 40 films a year and launched the first International Short Film Festival for Film Schools on the continent in 2017, a film festival that now takes place every year.
  4. Gabon: The Institut Philippe Maury de l’audiovisuel et du Cinéma is a film school part of the Gabon University group that emerged in 2010 and is located in Libreville, the capital city of Gabon.

Media is a powerful tool that shapes and changes lives and Netflix understands this. It provides the platform to show what is and is not possible to the poor, the marginalized and the underserved and underrepresented creators from the groups must have the opportunity to tell their own stories. In this way, people can better understand others from all walks of life, including their struggles and what is truly necessary in the world to better shape it and change it.

– Kena Irungu
Photo: Wikipedia Commons

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Ugandan Science Show Teaches Science to Children

Ugandan Science Show
A new Ugandan science show called N*Gen (pronounced “engine”) has exploded in popularity over the past year. The show is delighting kids across Africa and presenting a new and engaging way to learn science. The show debuted on Ugandan television in September 2020. Afterward, television networks in various African countries picked up the show. The show is even now available in North America and the Caribbean. N*Gen presents science through a “decidedly African Prism” and seeks to promote greater African and female representation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. With the show’s massive popularity, it has encouraged children to learn more about science and pursue careers in STEM. 

The Origins of N*Gen

Six teachers from the Clarke Junior School in Kampala created the Ugandan science show in 2020. They created the show in conjunction with the East African nonprofit Peripheral Vision International. Peripheral Vision International produces and funds the show. The show is shot in Kampala, Uganda and airs weekly in 35-minute episodes. It also features episodes shot on location for specific topics at times. N*Gen targets 8- to 12-year-old African children as its audience and has proven to be very popular with this demographic.

N*Gen seeks to be both engaging and entertaining to its audience. This is important in a culture where science is often labeled a more challenging subject. The show centers around engaging presentations of STEM topics through guest teachers and presenters, animations, quizzes and experiments, fitness and mindfulness exercises, on-location episodes and more. The creators stated the show’s goals are to be to:

  1. Foster a culture of curiosity and discovery
  2.  Model new holistic ways of approaching learning
  3. Promote positive gender norms
  4. Nurture trust in science
  5. Help families stay safe during the pandemic

How N*Gen is Changing Science Media

A persistent complaint about science education is that it has focused primarily on Western male perspectives. N*Gen’s ability to change this and engage its viewers in new ways has perhaps been the greatest success of the show. The show focuses on African issues and topics that are present in African kids’ lives. It primarily involves African female perspectives. This gives young girls role models and hopes to look to for a future in science.

N*Gen tends to cover topics that are specific to Africa. For example, they had a segment on the Turkana Boy fossil located in Kenya. A paleontologist from the museum where the bones are located spoke about the fossil. The show visited other locations including Lake Victoria and a local chocolate factory in order to bring science under a more relatable and close-to-home lens for the show’s viewers.

N*Gen’s Depiction of Women

N*Gen has emphasized the depiction of women as scientific experts and presenters as an important aspect of the show. A study shows that at age 6, girls draw 70% of scientists as women compared to 25% at age 16. This is likely due to a lack of female representation in media as scientists and scientific experts. However, N*Gen has made this a strong area of focus and helps to inspire young girls by showing exceptional women in the scientific field.

The two main presenters are teachers at the Clarke Junior School: Irene Nyangoma Mugadu and Annah Komushana. Guest teachers, scientists and presenters are predominantly women although men are certainly present in the show as well. This has influenced its audience and had the intended effect. A 10-year-old girl from Kampala who watches and even appeared on the show explained, “It’s boys who do all the fun stuff, and sometimes, a girl like me gets a little left out. But girls can be scientists and go to the moon.”

Going Global

After its debut in September, N*Gen was quickly picked up by television networks in over half a dozen African countries. After becoming a smash hit, the show was picked up by The Africa Channel and is now available for viewing in North America and the Caribbean every Saturday and Sunday at 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. ET.

– Clay Hallee
Photo: Flickr

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Fighting Poverty With Soap Operas

soap operasGlobally, it is estimated that at least 150 million people, or 2% of the world’s population, are homeless, with another 1.6 billion people, or more than 20% of the world’s population, lacking adequate housing. However, at the end of 2018, 51.2% of people worldwide and 45% in developing countries used the internet. Almost 60% of households had internet access in their homes in 2018, which is up from less than 20% in 2005, and broadband access continues to grow with a penetration rate of 69.3 per 100 participants. A report by the International Telecommunication Union found that almost 80% of households had a TV by the end of 2012. This percentage is 69% in developing countries, while “virtually all” households in the developed world have TVs. More than two-thirds of households with TVs took digital signals in sub-Saharan Africa in 2016, and estimates report that TV penetration will reach 99% in 35 forecast countries by 2021. Especially in impoverished areas, soap operas available on television help people stay up-to-date with current events and employment opportunities while providing educational content that, rather surprisingly, helps people escape poverty.

Soap Operas Aid Impoverished Turkish Women

In a study by Ozgun, Yurdakul and Atik, researchers found that soap operas affect the self-perception of young women in the impoverished neighborhoods of Izmir, Turkey. The study found that the women viewed these soap operas as tools of information gathering without the emotional burden of heavier news. The study suggests that soap operas become women’s primary connection with the outside world, exposing them to consumer culture and marketing, which are useful skills to have when entering the workforce.

More profoundly, these women were often able to connect on a cathartic level with the characters in these soap operas who endured the same economic struggles but eventually could escape poverty. Some women noted that the soap operas reminded them of their difficult pasts, which prompted them to “review and assess” their current life conditions and deal with daily problems. The shows also revealed to the women what they lacked in life, whether it be a job or power, and exposed them to the affluent “other life.” This led some to feel dissatisfaction with their living conditions, prompting them to come up with solutions to improve their lives.

However, the study also reveals that while soap operas empower some women, they can also exacerbate poverty even more — some women try to mimic the lavish lifestyles of characters without the finances to do so. Thus, the authors suggest that it may be more impactful for television networks to showcase culturally accessible public programming with more informative, advice-filled narrative content to better reduce poverty.

Combating Poverty Through “Edutainment”

Similar to the suggestions of Ozgun et al., Bilal Zia and Gunhild Berg experimented with “edutainment,” or entertainment with an educational aspect, by working together with the production company of “Scandal!,” a popular South African soap opera, to incorporate financial education messages throughout the plot. Because making financial decisions can be challenging for impoverished populations that lack education in finance, “Scandal!” hoped to help viewers develop better spending habits through a subplot about debt and gambling.

Zia and Berg ran a study in which one group of people would watch this soap opera while a control group watched another show. The researchers found that viewers of “Scandal!” showed significant improvements in financial knowledge and behavior. Viewers of “Scandal!” started to borrow from others less and reduce unnecessary expenditures like gambling. Viewers reportedly connected with the main character of the show, and ultimately, made more economically-wise life decisions that could in the future help them escape poverty.

Fighting HIV with Soap Operas

In addition to increasing financial literacy, soap operas can also improve health and medical awareness among impoverished populations. A study in Nigeria found that people who watched the soap opera “MTV Shuga” were twice as likely to get tested for HIV and were overall more knowledgeable about HIV transmission. The show, which has been broadcasted in more than 70 countries, focuses on an impoverished woman and her HIV-positive lover as she navigates the complex reality of HIV’s impact on daily life.

The show, which is supported by organizations like UNICEF and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, raises awareness of the dangers of risky sexual behavior, especially in regions like sub-Saharan Africa, which has approximately 1.5 million new HIV/AIDS cases each year. In addition to HIV testing, “MTV Shuga” also contributed to a reduction of chlamydia infections by 58% and a reduction of concurrent sex partners by 14%. The study reveals that edutainment like “MTV Shuga” is more influential and cost-effective than more traditional educational campaigns as it keeps people both entertained and informed.

Lowering Fertility Rates Through Soap Operas

A 2012 study by La Ferrara, Chong and Duryea explored the impacts of telenovelas, or Brazilian soap operas, on fertility rates in Brazil. A year after Rede Globo, the main telenovela broadcaster in Brazil, became available in municipalities across the country, the researchers found that fertility rates sharply declined. This effect was strongest for women of low socioeconomic backgrounds, many of whom lack proper education regarding safe sex and childbirth.

Among the telenovelas analyzed, 62.2% of main female protagonists did not have any children while 19.8% only had one child. Data reveals that telenovelas contributed to the decline in the number of live births, particularly among women aged 30-34 from around 4.4 to around 3.2. The study concludes that these soap operas help mothers make more educated decisions surrounding raising a family, which could lead mothers to seek future employment or save monetary resources for child education.

– Noah Sheidlower
Photo: Flickr

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Poverty in Big Data

Poverty in Big DataIt is impossible to remedy the causes of poverty without enough data to make accurate assessments for formulating solutions. There is little infrastructure in fragile countries and developing nations, making data collection difficult. Gaps in data can exist that are a decade wide. Infrequent studies conducted with only a single method of surveyal are inadequate. If there are not multiple methods of gathering data, the data will be skewed, because there will be no means of comparison for bias.

New methods have been developed to gather data remotely. These methods rely on finding signs of poverty in big data. Big data is a term for the massive amounts of data collected by computers. Poverty in big data can be detected by using self-learning artificial intelligence known as machine learning programs.

Cell Phone Data

While smartphones often remain out of reach for the impoverished, basic cell phones are a staple of life even for those living in developing nations. In fact, the greater part of sub-Saharan African countries own mobile phones. For example, in Tanzania, the country with the lowest reported number of phones, 75 percent of the population still owns a mobile device. In South Africa, the country with the highest reported number of phones, only nine percent of the population lives without a mobile phone. Another study on Rwandan households also found that mobile phones were more common than televisions or computers, ubiquitous items to the American household.
Because of these factors, there is an abundance of cell phone data (CPD) even in regions that typically lack data on poverty. According to a study done by the World Bank Group in Guatemala, CPD interpreted through machine learning can yield sufficiently accurate data of urban areas. CPD can be used to determine the location of a person’s home and how far they typically travel. With this data, researchers can see who is likely to travel to a location and who has a means of transportation for getting there.

Satellite Imagery

Civil unrest and harsh conditions can make it dangerous to gather data on poverty in some regions. These factors can disincentive data collection and cause years of gaps in survey data. A new remote method of analyzing public data on physical regions has helped demystify treacherous terrain. Satellite images of the Earth’s terrain, also known as Earth observations, display signals of wealth in a region. By measuring the luminosity of man-made light at night, researchers can make estimates of the economic status of an area. A proven correlation between illuminated areas, electric power consumption, and a country’s GDP justify these estimates. This is a fast and efficient method of obtaining data from a country that has seen natural disasters or civil war.

Social Media

The digital footprint of social media users, or lack thereof, can be useful in estimating data on the development of areas. According to the Pew Research Center, 53 percent of those in emerging nations use social media. Internet use correlates with the GDP per capita of a country, so the rising numbers of users are promising. However, sub-Saharan Africa and India are falling behind the rest of the world.

Finding poverty in big data through machine learning has proven to be informative and safe for researchers. The relatively unobtrusive nature of conducting studies in this manner makes sure that locals do not feel disturbed or angered. Remote and impersonal studies such as these also avoid issues such as under-reported poverty in illiterate households and over-reported poverty from those asked to recall their consumption.

– Nicholas Pirhalla
Photo: Flickr

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Wowowee and Pity Poverty on Television

Pity Poverty on Television
A show called Wowowee aired from 2005 to 2010 on Philippine television. The premise of the show was that contestants would come on the show to play games and recount the story of their daily suffering. Based on the pity their stories invoked in the host, Willie Revillame, the contestants received an award of cash, groceries, livelihood packages and even houses.

Jonathan Corpis Ong’s book “The Poverty of Television: The Mediation of Suffering in the Class-Divided Philippines” explains that Philippine television spectacularly displays poverty rather than sanitizing or ignoring it, as in other countries. This would often come in the form of awarding prizes to impoverished contestants, Wowowee was by far the most extravagant and the only one to specifically reward people for their stories of suffering.

In his book, Ong discusses the moral implications of financially encouraging severely impoverished contestants to engage in this pity poverty on television. Coaxed to share their life stories, the contestants hoped that Willie would singlehandedly alleviate their suffering.

Should Pity Receive Reward?

Wowowee themed its episodes in which all the contestants either had a disability or recently lost their jobs. The contestants would receive a reward for maintaining a convincing and sincere persona while telling their pitiful story. If the host did not deem them deserving enough, this would affect their monetary gain and the audience could be disappointed.

To make the show more engaging, Willie would switch between feigned tears and laughter, while the reality show would exhibit sound effects and canned laughter. Based on how tragic their life story was, contestants could get an award of almost $10 before playing any games on the show. The host, Willie, solely made this decision and he could also give hints during games to the most pitiful contestants.

Educated critics called Wowowee the opium of the Filipino masses, making the impoverished viewership Wowowee’s victims. However, Ong argues that these upper-class critics “lacked acknowledgment of structural conditions of inequality that pushed these contestants to perform suffering in excess on television.”

Wowowee’s high ratings came from the low-income viewers that made up the majority of the audience. These people also waited outside the television studio for the chance to go on the six-day-a-week show. Seventy-five percent of the viewership were low-income Filipinos. With such a huge viewership, Wowowee and its advertisers profited, since its audience’s “low purchasing power was made up for by sheer numbers.”

Ong argues that the show’s format creates patron-client ties in which poor people rely on rich individuals for salvation. This benefits the show more than the individuals waiting in line, who are unlikely to end up on the show but increase the show’s fame.

A Tragedy Without Consequences

The rumors of the prizes for the 2006 first anniversary show were so lavish that people attended who could not afford the return trip. When the show announced that fewer than half of the people who had been waiting days in line would make it in, a stampede started that resulted in the deaths of 73 people and the injuring of over 800. None of the producers of the show faced legal consequences and many viewers actually blamed the victims themselves for their actions of desperation.

In 2010 Wowowee received cancellation due to a controversy unrelated to the topic of the show. The following day a new game show took its place, called Pilipinas, Win na Win, which never matched the fame its predecessor received from its ostentatious use of pity poverty on television.

– Daria Locher
Photo: Flickr

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Anderson Cooper and Kelly Ripa Honor “CNN Heroes”

Anderson Cooper and Kelly Ripa Honor "CNN Heroes"Last weekend, CNN continued its annual tradition of honoring ten brave and thankless role models throughout the world. Headlined by Anderson Cooper and Kelly Ripa, the “CNN Heroes” award gala took place at New York’s American Museum of Natural History. The two-hour live event featured clips detailing the work of each hero, and at the end, 2016’s Hero of the Year was revealed as chosen by the viewer audience.

From adventurous kayaker Brad Ludden’s First Descents to young father Sheldon Smith’s Dovetail Project, the organizations represented were truly diverse, with notables including those furthering progress in the developing world.

CNN Heroes kicked-off by celebrating Luma Mufleh and her organization, Fugees Family. Founded in 2004, Luma assists refugee children to the United States by offering free academic enrichment programs and coaching after-school soccer games. As a Jordanian refugee herself, she targets children displaced due to war, and tailors services to meet individual needs, whether overcoming language barriers, learning about American institutions or combating discrimination. To date, Fugees Family has assisted more than 850 kids from 28 countries.

Another highlight is Umra Omar’s Safari Doctors which began in 2014. Umra temporarily lived in the U.S. but returned to her home in Kenya to provide medical care to the remote Lamu archipelago near the Somali border. Faced with frequent threats and spillover attacks by Al-Shabaab terrorists, most professionals in health care and education fled the Lamu area. However, Umra looks past the danger and now delivers immunizations and other basic health services, arriving on her own by boat. She estimates that she has treated over 2,000 people so far and maintains that these dire communities would benefit most from the return of trained professionals.

Finally, the 2016 Hero of the Year? Jeison Aristizabal, a native of Cali, Colombia, began a project known as ASODISVALLE to assist disabled persons in one of the poorest areas of his home country. Jeison suffers from cerebral palsy and since 2000, has worked to triumph over prevailing stigmas for all. Part of his mission focuses on the identification of other disabled people in the region, but the more important part focuses on providing inclusive rehabilitation and educational services to integrate these citizens back into the community. He offers everything from job training to healthy meals, stimulating the opportunities and happiness of thousands in the area.

Hosts Cooper and Ripa were seen getting emotional more than once at the event, a testament to their support for such projects around the developing world. Cooper has been a part of the program since its inception 10 years ago, and Ripa joined just this year, though making appearances as a presenter during the last two ceremonies. Ripa is also a known supporter of UNICEF.

While the real stars of the event are undoubtedly the remarkable CNN Heroes honorees, it is likely that Cooper and Ripa will both continue to use their presence to draw attention to similar causes in upcoming years.

– Zachary Machuga

Photo: Flickr