Google is using software to tackle disparities in media portrayal of genders

tech2 News StaffAug 29, 2016 18:11:47 IST

At the 2016 Bentonville Film Festival, entrants are required to submit transcripts and downloadable versions of the film. These films are being analysed by software developed by Google and the University of Southern California to assess how women are portrayed in media. A panel presentation on diversity of gender portrayal in media was a scheduled event at the festival, according to a post on Slashdot.

The testing of the software at the film festival is part of a Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media initiative funded by Google. Google has awarded $1.2 million (roughly Rs 80 crore) towards developing software that will analyse portrayal of genders on screen. The software tools are meant to speed up research in these disparities, which would take much longer if done by humans. The results will be used to reduce the amount of sexism in feature films and media in general.

The specific objective of the software is to improve the portrayal of women in children's films. Women are six times more likely to be portrayed in suggestive clothing or partially nude in family movies, as compared to men. Family films have only one female character for every three male characters, so just writing in more female characters into movies will help. The negative portrayals can severely impact the development of young girls including contributing to poor academics, body image issues, and less promising career choices.

Other recipients of Google's Global Impact Awards, which provides partial funding for projects depending on need include Khan Academy and the World Wildlife Fund.