Diversity (or the lack of in the gaming and PR industries)

While there is quite a few substantial criticisms for both the PR and gaming industry. A common critique levelled at them is diversity or rather lack of. When online you can find various creators or practitioners that are from different backgrounds, origins or society. However, that is not always reflective of the industry as a whole. While there has been a rise in diversity over the last few years at least in the gaming community we can all strive to do better.

As a white woman who is from a working class background, my experience will differ from another person who is the opposite. This does not mean one person's experience is more worthwhile than the other but maybe each has privileges or drawbacks and having an industry with diverse voices can bring awareness to issues you may not experience and can connect with a different audience. 

Follow the link to the infographic: 

Public Relations Prezi

Observations

When looking at the seniority by gender, intern, officer and head of comms are mainly women while others are the same. However, in senior positions the director and manager were men. This is compared to the fact that women were more involved in the profession. 

However in 2022, women were more likely to be officer and manager as it was the same for men and women in intern yet men were more likely to be directors and head of comms. This could be the effects of the pandemic as many struggle to return to work and women may be more likely to stay at home after having a child due to lack of opportunities for flexibility of childcare. 

When asked, PR practitioners are more likely (37%) in comparison to the general public (20%) to think their background gave them career advantages. They also agreed with the viewpoint  that it is becoming harder for those who are disadvantaged to socially and professionally progress (42% to 39%). This is in comparison to the general population. 

This might be because we are taught success stories early on, we have the motivational quotes of famous people who started from nothing. This narrative may lead people to assume that any can pull themselves up by the bootstraps. Unless you are in the workplace, you may not realise the difficulties and challenges involved in someone's background. While finding success regardless of your upbringing is a pleasing concept that has happened and in my opinion is more likely to happen in this current society with the accessibility of technology and social media, we have to acknowledge what could hold people back. 

Another observation that was in the report was that those who earned an average annual income of £63,411 agreed with the viewpoint that it is becoming easier for those in disadvantaged backgrounds to move up while those who have an income of £47,439 state that where you come from affects your future. Those who earned £48,550 believed that it was harder for people in less advantageous backgrounds to succeed while £55,024 believe that everyone has a fair chance with talent or hard work. 

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Follow the link to see an infographic that shows the ages and gender of gamers from different countries:

Gaming Prezi

Observations

The gender of streamers was interesting as despite seeing more prominent female creators the viewership was still quite low. Maybe they are not promoted enough in the mainstream or their genres of gaming may be deemed as niche. The fact that some YouTubers or content creators are not promoted has led to allegations of favouritism or discrimination on sites.

CoryxKenshin's video on racism and favouritism of the YouTube algorithm. 

Credit to CoryxKenshin

While there is no concrete evidence to state that this could be happening to these creators it could be a possibility due to recorded experiences. Other social networking sites like TikTok have been scrutinised over allegations of favouritism and racism on the site as they are not promoted by the algorithm. This can include having content limited by age restriction or not showing up in search or recommendations or even having content removed entirely.

When comparing countries, it seems that men were the larger demographic, there could be a number of factors for this. When using pop culture as a reference, women were not usually seen as the target audience in the mainstream video game market at least depending on the genres. 

The ages of the consumers were surprising because judging by portrayals in pop culture, gamers tend to be younger adults or teenagers. Referring back to the chart, I suggest that to could be that the older demographic tend to have extra finances or free time. 

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So comparing statistics and analysing is all well and good and we can speculate on reasons why the figures are the way they are (not for too long, I’m not great at maths) but these figures should tell us how we as an industry or community can do better. Now I don’t hold much power. I'm not the prime minister (I would like to think I would last longer than some soggy lettuce but I digress) but we need to start making welcoming spaces for everyone and promote people who are diverse in the communities as the algorithms have been notorious for their favouritism.

We can do this by holding those in authority to account and calling out the systems that hold us back like lack of funding in poorer areas, less representation, provide childcare or support for people struggling as parents or address the issues like the Pay Gap and make sure everyone is listened to. Those are just a few recommendations and while as stated before both industries seem to be improving, there is hope that they become more inclusive spaces in the future. One can dream.

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