STEM Archives – The Broadcast Knowledge

To mark the launch, today, of a new section of The Broadcast Knowledge highlighting what the industry is doing to promote a better gender balance in the broadcast industry, we have a panel discussion from the RTS about that very topic.

I’ve said it before, and again I implore everyone to take it upon yourself to do just one thing to improve diversity in gender, little or small. The numbers are clear that in technology, there is a large imbalance and, according to Rise director Carrie Wootten, Research shows that “having a more gender balanced structure leads to additional ideas, creativity, business development and crucially income generation.”

With experienced voices, from UK TV, TeenTech, Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, NEP Sound engineer Anna Patching and the deputy chair of Women in Film and Television, we hear questions and answers about how companies can find female candidates, and how individuals can advance their careers.

The message is that there are things people throughout a company can do to address gender balance, so watch to find out more.

Watch now!

Speakers

	Chair: Maggie Philbin CEO, Teen Tech
	Sinead Greenaway Chief Technology and Operations Officer, UKTV
	Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, Space Scientist, Science Educator & Presenter
	Anna Patching Sound Engineer & STEM ambassador NEP
	Sara Putt Deputy Chair, Women in Film & Television (UK)

“If she can see it, she can be it,” is the catch phrase of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. The issue being if she’s not seeing it, it’s almost impossible to convince a young woman that a career in STEM is even fathomable.

For us in the broadcast industry, it’s clear there is a lot to do and this is work that needs to be done at all ages.
Please, take it upon yourself do to something this year, however small, to address the gender imbalance in broadcast.

A recent study related to me by a science teach fresh back from a conference found that if girls hadn’t become interested in science by the age of 6, then when they come to choose their exam choices at 14 and beyond, they were vastly less likely to choose STEM topics. However, many are interested yet put off by all sorts of factors later on – many of which can be addressed.

When women feature in film and TV, this directly influences real people. The Hunger Games’s Katniss Everdeen was “the major cause of waiting lists for archery lessons from coast to coast.” a few years ago. In 2018 a study was released on ‘The Scully Effect’, about the real world effect of Dana Scully from The X-Files:
Of the women surveyed, “63% say Scully increased their confidence that they could excel in a male-dominated profession.”

In this talk at the SMPTE ATC, Krystle Penhall, takes us through these studies, examines the problems in STEM today and how IBM and the aerospace industry have tried to counteract the problems they face.

Watch now!

Speaker