Spellcheck for Bias, a collaboration between the Institute and the University of Southern California’s Signal Analysis and Interpretation Laboratory (SAIL), analyzes film and television scripts, manuscripts, and advertising briefs to create a breakdown of characters and dialogue. Beyond our software-based script analysis process, Spellcheck for Bias also incorporates the Institute’s Human Expert Coding to determine the representation of six identities: gender, race/ethnicity, LGBTQIA+, disability, age 50+, and body type. In addition, Spellcheck for Bias provides an analysis of Tropes and Stereotypes and such attributes as racial injustice violence, discrimination and intelligence.

The stories that we choose to tell in entertainment media send a specific message about who matters most in our culture. In order to bring about a global culture change, it is especially important that children see diverse, intersectional representations of characters in media to reflect the population of the world — which is half female and very diverse — and avoid unwittingly instilling unconscious bias in them. Doing good is also good for business!

GTDI and the Geena Davis Institute initially launched the Spellcheck for Bias pilot with targeting content from Universal Pictures, Focus Features and DreamWorks Animation, and later expanded to include Universal Studio Group and the Entertainment Content Group. This expansion is intended to help content creators and NBCU creative and production executives prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion in the early stages of the development production processes across NBCUniversal’s film, television and streaming portfolio.