Actress Geena Davis, NBCUniversal to Use ‘Bias’ Technology to Examine Black Representation

Actress Geena Davis’ Institute on Gender in Media — which researches gender representation in media, and advocates for more representation of women — is teaming up with NBCUniversal to expand the organization’s “Spellcheck for Bias” to analyze black, Asian, and Pacific Islander representation.

Spellcheck for Bias is a digital tool that analyzes scripts and identifies characters by gender, race, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, age, and body type. The tool also measures the percentage of dialogue by demographic identity, as well as pick up on violence, discrimination, and intelligence.

NBCUniversal and the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media are now expanding their Spellcheck for Bias partnership to analyze how black, Asian Americans, and Pacific Islander people and characters are hired and portrayed, according to a report by the Hollywood Reporter.

The move comes after NBCU used Spellcheck for Bias to flag stereotypes, tropes, and casting opportunities pertaining to Latino characters, which resulted in the media company making changes to 20 percent of the scripts it tested during tool’s pilot phase.

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