ABSTRACT
Policymakers have wrestled with the concept of media diversity for decades. Typically, their attention has focused on either the diversity of sources or the diversity of content available to the public. While these are important considerations, they ignore a crucial question. What do audience members do with the media options they have? Do they consume a varied diet of program types and ideas, or binge on the equivalent of junk food? Is there diversity of exposure? The data and methodological tools needed to answer these questions in a nonconjectural way already exist. Those answers could provide a useful “reality check” as we consider the meaning of diversity in the new media environment.
