ABSTRACT
This qualitative research is based on a close reading of transcripts from 41 in-depth open-ended interviews with young adult streaming media subscribers. Analysis of the interviews revealed three main findings. First, interviewees consider diversity very broadly, and from both quantitative and qualitative perspectives. Diversity begins with sufficient numbers of diverse people, but it extends into who is represented and how. Second, interviewees believe that diversity in streaming media is of vital importance to individuals and society. They believe that diverse media content performs an educational function, such as increasing tolerance, reducing discrimination and stereotyping, helping give individual viewers hope and confidence, and even improving their mental health. Finally, most interviewees believed that streaming media were more diverse than traditional television, with some attributing that to organizational and other factors associated with legacy media conglomerates.
