ABSTRACT

It seems on the face of it to be inherently a good thing: More ideas are better ideas. As translated into media policy, this becomes the principle of “diversity.” Media content diversity is still a good thing, but in operationalization matters become more complex. Questions about just what it is that is “diverse” and how the extent of diversity can be measured are the subjects of the rest of the chapters of this volume and are not further addressed here. There is a deep contradiction in arguments for content diversity grounded in the concept of the “marketplace of ideas” by authors who otherwise insist that neoclassical economic analyses of media effects are insufficient. This essay addresses a third type of problemml: the fetishization of diversity as a policy principle underestimates its limits.