Infographic Debate Project

Description

My infographic illustrates why and how TV is too white. I start with stats to first prove that TV features more white people than it does people of color. I used info about the best and most popular shows from 2022 (according to IMDB) and then I went through simplified versions of the cast lists to find what percentage of each show's main cast was made up of white actors and actresses. Now that I've shown how TV is more white than anything else, I illustrate why that's a problem. I use many different facts and statistics from various places. I end with acknowledging the shows that already exist that feature plenty of people of color, and I explain how sometimes they aren't enough.

 Reflection

I picked this topic because representation in media was something I already liked discussing. I chose this argument because I agree with it, personally, representation is something I feel very strongly about and because it's a topic I've already looked into, I thought it might be easy to make an infographic about it.

It was actually a lot harder than I thought to find good enough evidence that would both fit on a small infographic and couldn't be easily refuted. I think this is because this topic can have a lot of nuance to it; when the conversation reaches proper representation, and how the amount of representation on screen compares to the real world population, things get complicated. A lot of time went into figuring what set of TV shows I would pick, from what time, and how I chose to present my data. It was very tedious, and I even did some of the research myself, compiling the data on the cast lists. 

The initial idea for my color scheme was to base the coloring off of popular streaming services: the red being reminiscent of Netflix, and the background referring to HBO Max. However, as I worked my colors kind of devolved into what I'd describe as a simple, poppy, vibrant palette, which I like.

 I think my infographic could convince people. I use bright colors, nice looking graphics, and strong language that I feel could catch people's attention. I also feel like the list of popular TV shows is bound to keep some people interested, as they're granted a chance to think about the proportions of races in their favorite shows.