Diversity in governance

This chapter reviews the value of diversity as a normative principle for processes of media and communication governance, specifically, state-level media policymaking. A number of conceptual limitations and paradoxes plague the notion of diversity, including its relationship to political legitimacy, representativeness and inclusion. Moreover, diversity has recently been wielded by institutions primarily as a public relations exercise to reaffirm and justify their hegemonic whiteness. Examples from Western democracies that have championed their multiculturalism are used to illustrate these limitations of attempts to realize diversity in instruments for greater public participation in media and communication policymaking. Despite the critiques of diversity demonstrated here, it remains an important normative goal for democratic processes in order to address the shortcomings of neoliberal policy processes.