Diversity opens doors

Kaitlin Heneghan
kh416415@ohio.edu

Image from Cartoonstock.com by Chris Wildt
Search ID: cwin5806

Diversity is crucial in this day and age. In today's society, with social media being huge outlets, if a company, an influencer or a celebrity is caught being offensive in anyway there are major repercussions. Even if there are no verbal comments being offensive, people still notice what there is a lack of diversity. It isn't hard to cause a crisis for a company if consumers notice the lack of diversity. People will immediately turn to social media to cause an uproar. The have been many instances where people turn to social media to express their disappointment with a company. One example of major backlash due to lack of diversity has been with Disney.

It started with their films. Disney is a multi-billion dollar company with many movies that have been released. In the article, Diversity in Disney Animated Films, the author mentions that Disney has a total of 54 movies released and of those movies only 11 have characters of a different race. As the years went on people began to notice this, and Disney began getting backlash. It also talks about how Disney is very influential for their younger audience, so the lack of diversity can be hard for younger kids to be able to relate too. Disney got a ton of comments for having a lack of diversity with race, but the LGBTQ+ community also made comments. This led to Disney writing Princess Elsa, in Disney's Frozen, as a lesbian in the sequel film coming out sometime this year. Not only did Disney get backlash with their lack of diversity in their films, but also within their company when it comes to hiring.

In the article, Disney and Diversity, it talks how in Hollywood there is a low hiring rate for directors for women and black Americans. Disney is said to be the worst about hiring women and black Americans, although a few other big studios don't seem to being doing much better.

Diversity is important. It helps with gaining different perspectives. It helps with new ideas because people of different races, sexual orientation, backgrounds, etc can all contribute and open a lot of new doors for the company. There are so many benefits to having a diverse workplace. It creates a chance for innovation and increases employee performance. It makes a company seem more inviting and accepting. A company today may not do its best if there was no diversity at all.

In a newsroom it is important to have a diverse group of reporters because it creates a new level of trust. Today with the social issues going on, people may relate more with a person of their race or with a similar background to cover the story. It also builds for a better reputation for the newsroom if people and readers know that there is a diverse group of people working together. It shows that the company does not discriminate and is open to anyone and everyone. It makes a company more relatable to the audience it is trying to attract.