In honor of Black History Month, Ampersand is thrilled to present this special roundtable interview with a trio of media professionals to discuss the current state of diversity and representation in the industry and what the next steps are for continued progress.
Though representation has continued to improve in recent years, from film and television to advertising and corporate America, there is still a long way to go for that representation to be proportionate with the Black U.S. population. "In the African American community, we're not abreast to a lot of those opportunities," says Karrington Symonds, Vice President of Content and Programming at HBCU Go. "As we work with HBCUs, students don't hear about the same opportunities or get these chances to showcase what they can do. The reality is, we're getting the knowledge in terms of how to produce content. But it means nothing if you can't get past the front door. You have to be given the access and the opportunity to show the talent level that you have. That's all you're asking for."
J. Bernard Calloway, a film, television and Broadway actor, shares that while he enjoyed his time at HBCU Alabama State University, he still noticed that other universities and theater programs had advantages in place that HBCUs did not. "[Universities such as] NYU, Yale, Carnegie Mellon ... have a showcase at the end of their tenure where they go to a major city like New York, L.A. or Chicago and showcase the class so that producers and casting directors can see their works," he explained. "A lot of this is not available to these institutions."
Looking at improving representation from a recruitment standpoint in the media, advertising and marketing communities, Aaron Finkelstein, Head of Recruitment at Ampersand, says, "The challenge in our industry is if you look at the executive level, unfortunately that doesn't always represent the entry-level talent in our industry. As executives, there is a lot of pressure to hit KPIs and business goals, and the amount of risk someone is willing to take in hiring someone with transferable skill is being weighed out. We need to do a better job at taking that risk in bringing folks who haven't had that opportunity to enter it."
You can watch the rest of this roundtable conversation above or listen wherever you download your podcasts, including Audacy,iHeartRadio,Spotify,Apple, GooglePodcasts, Pandora, Stitcher and TuneIn.
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