Google Conducted Hollywood 'Interventions' To Change Look of Computer Scientists

[DEAD7]

Most TV computer scientists are still white men," USA Today reports. "Google wants to change that. Google is calling on Hollywood to give equal screen time to women and minorities after a new study the internet giant funded found that most computer scientists on television shows and in the movies are played by white men. The problem with the hackneyed stereotype of the socially inept, hoodie-clad white male coder? It does not inspire underrepresented groups to pursue careers in computer science, says Daraiha Greene, Google CS in Media program manager, multicultural strategy." According to a Google-funded study conducted by Prof. Stacy L. Smith and the Media, Diversity, & Social Change Initiative at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, Google's Computer Science in Media team conducted "CS interventions" with "like-minded people" to create "Google influenced storytelling." The executive summary for a USC study entitled Cracking the Code: The Prevalence and Nature of Computer Science Depictions in Media notes that "Google influenced" TV programs include HBO's Silicon Valley and AMC's Halt and Catch Fire. The USC researchers also note that "non-tech focused programs may offer prime opportunities to showcase CS in unique and counter-stereotypical ways. As the Google Team moves forward in its work with series such as Empire, Girl Meets World, Gortimer Gibbons Life on Normal Street, or The Amazing Adventures of Gumball, it appears the Team is seizing these opportunities to integrate CS into storytelling without a primary tech focus." The study adds, "In the case of certain series, we provided on-going advisement. The Fosters, Miles from Tomorrowland, Halt and Catch Fire, Ready, Jet, Go, The Powerpuff Girls and Odd Squad are examples of this. In addition to our continuing interactions, we engaged in extensive PR and marketing support including social media outreach, events and press."

Most TV computer scientists are still white men. Google wants to change that.

 

[Apex Mentality]

Pop culture fiction does influence reality when it doesn't feel forced, for better or worse.

This might work.

 

[Poh SIti Dawn]

Fair enough really

 

[CopiousX]

honestly, I dont think television inspired most CS guys.





I chose compEng which is parallel to both CompSci and electricEng, so I took a sht ton of CS courses for undergrad with them.



When I asked some of the CS majors why they went into compSci over another major , the result was never "cause I saw it on TV"



90% of the CS majors told me they went into the industry for videogames. They either fell in love with a video game series as a kid or they were one of the weird kids who took apart their game cubes for fun.





If Google wanted more women and minorities in computer scientist roles, I think it may be more effective to push more video games at girls in school and subsidize video game access for black folk, hispanics, etc.




In my program, I only ever met two other black people in the CS courses. One was a nigerian breh and the other was an FBA/ADOS woman. Non-coincidentally, both said they were inspired by video games. The girl was actually trying to get an internship with Sony lined up for game design during her junior year

 

[Professor Emeritus]

honestly, I dont think television inspired most CS guys.

I chose compEng which is parallel to both CompSci and electricEng, so I took a sht ton of CS courses for undergrad with them.

When I asked some of the CS majors why they went into compSci over another major , the result was never "cause I saw it on TV"

90% of the CS majors told me they went into the industry for videogames. They either fell in love with a video game series as a kid or they were one of the weird kids who took apart their game cubes for fun.

If Google wanted more women and minorities in computer scientist roles, I think it may be more effective to push more video games at girls in school and subsidize video game access for black folk, hispanics, etc.

In my program, I only ever met two other black people in the CS courses. One was a nigerian breh and the other was an FBA/ADOS woman. Non-coincidentally, both said they were inspired by video games. The girl was actually trying to get an internship with Sony lined up for game design during her junior year

The thing is, if you look at what inspired the current crew of programmers, you'll probably get....more people like them.

If you want to get different folk you have to access different routes.

Mae Jemison, the first Black Woman to ever fly into space, was directly inspired by watching Nichelle Nichols play Lieutenant Uhura on Star Trek and believing that she wanted to do that too someday.

https://web.stanford.edu/dept/news/stanfordtoday/ed/9607/pdf/ST9607mjemison.pdf

"It would've been so charmingly naïve, this tale Mae Jemison tells of her early celestial dreams, if it weren't also a parable for the spirit that helped make them true. As fantastical as it sounds, her pioneering journey aboard the space shuttle Endeavour was fueled by a childhood passion for "Star Trek," its made-for-TV adventures stimulating a hunger for real ones in her own mind.

Who cared that, in reality, every U.S. astronaut was white and male at the time? She looked no further than the USS Enterprise. After all, right there on the screen, week in and week out, who could miss Lt. Uhura, the starship's stylish, self-assured communications officer - and a black woman, no less. For little Mae, a child of the '60s, the make-believe image was more potent than any dispiriting fact of real life.

"Images show us possibilities," the Stanford graduate says. "A lot of times, fantasy is what gets us through to reality."

A quarter of a century after Lt. Urhura boldly went where no African American had gone before, her protegee returned the favor. Before blasting into orbit aboard the Endeavour in 1992, Jemison, the first woman of color in space, called actress Nichelle Nichols to thank her for the inspiration. And then she made a promise.

Despite NASA's rigid protocol, Jemison would begin each shift with a salute that only a Trekkie could appreciate. "Hailing frequencies open," she could be heard repeating throughout the eight-day mission."

Cornball as hell but I fukk with it.


LaVar Burton later directed an episode of TNG and got her to appear as a character on the bridge. Meanwhile, Nichelle more than once did publicity for NASA just to make the whole thing go full circle.

 

[CopiousX]

The thing is, if you look at what inspired the current crew of programmers, you'll probably get....more people like them.

If you want to get different folk you have to access different routes.

Mae Jemison, the first Black Woman to ever fly into space, was directly inspired by watching Nichelle Nichols play Lieutenant Uhura on Star Trek and believing that she wanted to do that too someday.

https://web.stanford.edu/dept/news/stanfordtoday/ed/9607/pdf/ST9607mjemison.pdf



Cornball as hell but I fukk with it.


LaVar Burton later directed an episode of TNG and got her to appear as a character on the bridge. Meanwhile, Nichelle more than once did publicity for NASA just to make the whole thing go full circle.

So you're suggesting a qualitative shift instead of a quantitative change? Could definitely work.

 

[Professor Emeritus]

So you're suggesting a qualitative shift instead of a quantitative change? Could definitely work.

The way you framed that makes me wanna take it even further. I think a true qualitative shift in STEM recruiting is where the best progress for the future is at.

I went to one of the top tech schools in the country at the height of the tech revolution. The students I went to school with were uniformly geniuses but they were all the same - immature boys, white and asian, nerdy as fukk, cared about little other than tech. For me it was a small piece of the "Cedric Jennings at Brown" experience, going from being "THE NERD" at my shytty high school to feeling like I was one of the few normal ones there.

We could keep focusing on getting more of the same and recruiting more of the same. Eventually if we fixed our fukked up K-12 school system and the situation in the inner cities then we could build up our base of male black and brown nerds to join the white and asian ones. But is that really what we want for tech in the long run? A bunch of brilliant career-focused basement dwellers (no offense) devoting their lives to making better spyware for the NSA and increasing Mark Zuckerburg's profits?

If we really want the best programmers, engineers, scientists of the future, I think we need to diversify our talent base and get more well-rounded people. And you're gonna find those people in different places than you found the nerds that make up your current base. How many programmers in tech really understand culture? Have work-life balance? Really get social justice issues? Understand the full societal ramifications of the shyt they're contributing to right now?

There were some wonderful people I went to school with, but I think that tech is largely driving society right now, and if we want people equipped to drive it in a good direction, we need to reassess how we build for the future.