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The success of TV shows like VH1’s Love and Hip Hop featuring diverse casts should spur other networks to look to create more programming featuring people of color in various roles and content genres, according to Mona Scott-Young, founder and CEO of Monami Entertainment.

Young, speaking Monday at the The Diversity Discussion event, said the success of reality franchises such as Love and Hip Hop tap – for which she serves as executive producer – taps into a desire for multicultural audiences – and African-American audiences in particular – to see themselves on the screen.

“Having the opportunity to provide a point of entry for women of color in particular became a very important agenda for me because those opportunities both in front of and behind the screen are few and far between,” she said in a discussion with Broadcasting & Cable editor Dade Hayes. 

Scott-Young also conceded that while the Love and Hip Hop franchise – which includes several successful spinoffs – has been a ratings hit for VH1, it has also garnered a fair share of criticism for its often salacious character portrayals.

“There has been a ton of backlash because people feel like these representations aren’t what we want to see of ourselves,” she said. “There has been two schools of thought about having a show like Love and Hip Hop that has brought tremendous success to the network, but some folks feeling it might not be the image of diversity that some want to see.”

Still, she said the show is helping to open up more opportunities for the network as well as the industry to offer more diverse programming. “[The industry] can no longer discount the audience and the advertising dollars that the show brings,” she said. “At the end of the day that’s what counts.”

Scott-Young added that she doesn’t want to be “pigeonholed” into developing just reality content, adding that she’s working on several other projects including a scripted series. She also said while the content side of the business is saturated with programming, she’s confident that she’ll continue to create programming that stands out of the pack.

Scott-Young also lamented about the need for more diversity and inclusion behind the camera and within the executive suites. Young said that within her company she’s cognizant of hiring qualified people of color and women of all ages.

“There are older women who tell me once you’re of a certain age its hard to break in, much less move up the ranks, so that’s something that I try to work against as well,” she said.

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New York – When it comes to helping heal a divided nation, two members of The Five on Fox News Channel recommend a healthy exchange of disparate views – and plenty of listening.

Juan Williams and Kimberly Guilfoyle, who sometimes spar with each other on their 5-p.m. daily show, praised the merits of dialogue and keeping an open mind at The Diversity Discussion on Tuesday. Their conversation with R. Thomas Umstead of Multichannel News followed Univision anchor Maria Alena Salinas saying the presidential election’s surprising outcome left many people “crying and afraid.” 

Guilfoyle, who has more of a conservative bent than Williams on the show, said the media has a chance to improve on how the country is covered with lessons learned from Donald Trump’s victory. “There is room for growth in all of us and across all of these platforms, to be able to make sure that we are hearing each other, that we are understanding exactly what’s going on across the country. So that people don’t wake up on election day and say, ‘Wait, what just happened? We weren’t prepared for it. We didn’t understand. There wasn’t a dialogue there, or there wasn’t the coverage to show perhaps how this evolved and what occurred.’ ”

Guilfoyle also said it would be helpful for the president-elect to “reach out to these communities that did feel that they were disenfranchised or being singled out” in the election.

She said she and Williams “I think … both remain optimistic and positive” Trump will take that opportunity. 

Williams said formats like The Five in which people of differing viewpoints talk, debate and have “legitimate discourse that could lead to common understanding” can help at a time when people turn to information and opinion sources that support their own views (and prejudices).  “What’s critical is in the midst of that that they would be able to hear a different idea, a different story, a different perception,” Williams said.

Viewers tend to tune to Fox News longer than other channels, which Williams said was “because they want to hear the end of the story,” equivalent to a “driveway moment” at his former employer, NPR.

NEW YORK — While journalists, and those connected to Hispanic audiences in particular, had a busy 18 months covering the presidential election, the real work starts in the coming weeks, said Maria Elena Salinas, anchor of Noticiero Univision.

Salinas was a keynote speaker at the B&C/Multichannel News Diversity Discussion event here on Monday (Dec. 5).

“I think our job now is more important than ever,” she said.

Salinas, in TV news since 1981, noted that she’s never seen an election cycle quite like 2016. “I’ve never covered an election where the next day people are crying and afraid,” she said, referring to the Hispanic community’s fears over loved ones being deported, among other issues.

She mentioned a sense of betrayal among some viewers, who felt that the network’s push to get people to vote would elicit a different result.

Salinas, who anchors alongside Jorge Ramos, said “things have calmed down a little bit” since Nov. 8. “I think eventually time heals all wounds,” she added.

The veteran anchor suggested people give President-elect Donald Trump a chance to do right by the country, and by the Latino population. “Give him a chance to see if he can govern,” she said while acknowledging in the next breath that Trump does not possess governing knowhow.

Mark Robichaux, editorial director of Multichannel News and B&C, interviewed Salinas. When Trump kicked off his campaign with an address that labeled Mexican immigrants as rapists and drug smugglers, Salinas said the whole of the Hispanic population felt the sting.

“When you attack one specific community, in this case undocumented immigrants, you are really attacking all of them,” she said.