Social Diversity in the Television Industry

Social Diversity in the Television Industry
Television industry’s reliance on social connections and informal recruitment practices reduces the diversity of social representations that television can offer. Social connections and informal recruitment practices have the effect of reducing the diversity of social representation mostly by promoting favor in the industry to certain classes of people. There are some practices which may help argue the case against the motion, but their significance cannot compare to the evidence that the social diversity is reduced, favoring those who have a good cultural capital. The social classes in reference are the high-class citizens who are powerful and wealthy, the middle-class citizens who can manage their finances just fine and they are neither rich nor poor, and the low-class citizens, who represent the poor.
The reliance of the television industry on the social connections and informal recruitment practices reduces the social diversity. Networking and cultural capital are the two main factors that facilitate the discrepancy in representation in the television industry.
Networking
The reliance on social networks as a means of getting jobs reduces the diversity of social representations because of the lack of transparency. The standard way of getting a job is by getting the necessary qualifications, then putting it down in curriculum vitae which are attached to an application letter for the job. The applicant then waits to be called for the scheduled interview on a specified date.

However, this is not the case when social networking comes into consideration. The word of mouth rules when networking comes in. All that happens is that the person in search of the job has to be a known person by the manager or someone in high ranks at the company, and word of mouth then rules. People exploit this weakness in the recruitment method by establishing a connection with the other party involved, for example, through an event such as a party. After getting acquainted at such social gatherings, individuals pull strings and get jobs for their friends. These friends are people who did not even bother to write their curriculum vitae. The letters are usually just piled up and left untouched. This lack of transparency is discouraging for those who believe in standard procedure of submitting the application letter. Rachel’s words confirm this in CITATION Lee11 p 558 l 1033 (Lee, 2011, p. 558). She confesses that none of the jobs she had gotten were ever advertised. She got them through her contacts; through word of mouth whereby talking to one director nicely made it possible for them to recommend her to other directors. Doing a standard application process cannot work in her case, because, in the first place, she would never get follow-on jobs.
It is also blatant that social networking promotes favors in different forms, for example, nepotism. Nepotism is where people give favors, especially jobs, to their relatives or the people with power and influence. Naturally, it is blatant that people have to help each other whenever it is possible, but people tend to take a keen interest in helping their relatives because they believe that the bond of blood and friendship surpasses all others as in the saying “Blood is thicker than water.” The net effect is a lack of transparency in the recruitment process. Louise gives evidence of the complete lack of transparency due to factors such as nepotism:
The way that it [recruitment] seems to happen at the moment is often just through nepotism. And I know that some people will build little empires and just surround themselves with their mates. It’s not necessarily good for the programs, and it’s not necessarily very good for the industry. And it prevents other people who might be better at that job from getting ahead CITATION Lee11 p 558 l 1033 (Lee, 2011, p. 558).
Social networking also promotes seclusion in the workplaces. Getting a job is much easier with networking, but the thing that is often forgotten is that networking compromises the expertise of the job. Going through an interview as it is in the standard way of getting jobs allows the assessment of the job applicants. The interviewer ranks the interviewees based on particular areas which are relevant to the line of work, for example in the television industry, they may require other skills such as communicating with the right tone of voice. These bonus skills are ignored completely when one gets the job through a “backdoor” such as social networking. When it comes to putting to work what you know, the individuals who came in through the back door have problems because they may be lacking in some particular aspects of the job. The impact of being shut out will then be that the employee may opt out.
Cultural Capital
Cultural capital also plays a role in the informal recruitment process and networking. Networking is highly dependent on factors such as class, geography, education and socio-economic status; therefore one’s ability to network relates to the cultural capital. This relationship between social networking and cultural capital illustrates that the recruitment process promotes divisions in the society and favors only some of the divisions. Societal divisions exist almost everywhere CITATION Lee11 p 555 l 1033 (Lee, 2011, p. 555). Cultural capital promotes the division of the society along class lines, for example, parents will provide their children with the cultural capital which they require. In most cases, the general requirement for children is education. The child will go to school and get educated on various values that are needed in workplaces, and when his time comes to get the job, he will get it because he has the right tools for the job. When he becomes a parent, the cycle will repeat itself. On the contrary, someone whose parents happen to be in the low social class will face it rough. The value of education that the child will get may be less than mediocre, and as a result, the child will have little values imparted into him. When the time to look for the job comes, assuming the application letter he writes considered; he will not get the chance of an interview. If he is lucky, he may get the interview but then he will most probably not pass it because he lacks the required tools such as communication. The impact is that he will have to put up with the fact that he may live his life a poor man of the low-class society. When he grows up and has his children, the same cycle will happen if no other pleasant circumstances intervene. This means that the social diversity in the industry will exclude the poor.
Cultural capital also affects the diversity of the social representations in the television industries by limiting the work experience to those who are financially able. The low-class citizens are majorly affected here because the television industry demands that one has to get some work experience before beginning the actual job. People get work experience by working in the industry for free during a period. This is disadvantageous for the low-class citizens because they cannot afford to spend money on the requirements for the work experience yet they have little money for food. For the wealthy lot in the high class and those who are financially able in the middle class, this expenditure will not be a problem; they will rather see it as an investment for the future. As a result, the middle and high-class citizens will have more chances of getting jobs than the low-class citizens. This is a definite reduction in the social diversity of the television industry.
Cultural capital can also have an adverse impact on the work relations between employees at the workplaces. Concerning the educational status of a person as an example, there exist different individuals in the work environment. Various people have different qualifications, for instance, someone may have a degree; another person may have a doctorate, and yet in the same environment there exists someone who got the job by other means than through the assessment of his educational background. The person may have gotten the job by demonstrating prowess in a related field that interests him. His lack of education may not have stopped him from acquiring the knowledge because of the interest he has. However, in the work environment, he will be the person under the spotlight because he will face seclusion from other people.
Two senior producers in CITATION Cot98 p 300 l 1033 (Cottle, 1998, p. 300) prove the existence of these bad relations due to seclusion. One of them admits that even though there is the equal opportunity policy in the British Broadcasting Corporation, the minorities still face a lack of opportunities to get into mainstream media. This is because of the very well established, white, middle-class people with their attitude that dominates there and makes other minority groups not feel welcome. Sometimes it becomes a problem even for the working class people. The other producer talked from his experience when he walked into a room full of executives of the BBC. He encountered big, tall, white men who were all having a fun time discussing business until he got in. He was not faced with hostility, but the fact that they saw him and changed the topic to other irrelevant subjects such as marveling at his new haircut shows that they probably don’t think he is at the same level as they are. This makes him feel despised.
No matter how many adverse effects on the social diversity may arise from the television industry relying on social connections and informal recruitment practices, there is always a good side to it.
The television industry’s dependence on networking can be seen to increase the diversity of the social representations. Regarding the statement that networking is highly dependent on factors such as class, geography, education and socio-economic status, it is evident that networking can also be a way of increasing the diversity. With the focus being on the dependency of networking on geography, you can see that networking creates connections between people who are from various geographical locations. The social structure of society is always dependent on their environment and beliefs. When the job seeker gets a job from a distant place, he brings diversity to the industry. The continued addition of employees through this method of social networking will bring together people from various geographical locations – people with diverse cultures. This increases the diversity.
Networking also enhances the variety because of its necessity in finding a market infrastructure. Networking plays a significant role in marketing because it helps in the event of competition with others in the industry. Through networking, you make contacts, and they can be useful when it comes to creating a market for you. The business relations you will have with your contacts will lead to the development of weak ties, which can be useful when it comes to giving recommendations. After you familiarize yourself with the other contact, it becomes easier to ask for favors from fellow business partners. The ease comes in because people believe in favor for a favor; today something you need will be provided by someone else, but tomorrow you will be the one to help the other person. Having a network of contacts will thus be a more efficient way of marketing yourself and even advertising your products. A good business person will, therefore, see the need to constantly increase his network, and by so doing, the television industry will be increasing its diversity in social representations.
Conclusion
In conclusion, there are both upsides and downsides to having the television industry rely on networking and other informal recruitment practices. The downsides mostly aim at the low-class citizens because they are the ones who are disadvantaged, as in the cases of getting the work experience and having a good cultural capital which translates to a good social capital. There also exist some advantages of reliance on networking and informal recruitment practices on the diversity, but their impact is not as significant as the downsides. This imbalance in benefit and cost confirms that indeed, the television industry’s reliance on social connections and informal recruitment practices reduces the diversity of social representations that television can offer.

References
BIBLIOGRAPHY Cottle, S., 1998. Making ethnic minority programs inside the BBC: professional pragmatics and cultural containment. In: Media, culture & society. London: SAGE Journals, pp. 295-317.
Lee, D., 2011. Networks, cultural capital and creative labor in the British independent television industry. In: Media, culture & society. London: SAGE Journals, pp. 549-565.