Tony Bennett, Differing diversities - Council of Europe

Differing diversitiesIn post-war Germany, political considerations supported the maximum ofdecentralisation of institutions, including media, on a regional basis.Social-cultural diversity is not static and changes both in degree and form. Manytendencies of modern society reduced the significance of some older bases of differentiation,especially religion, social class, region and language and dialect.There has been an extensive “globalisation” of many aspects of experience,including media consumption. Cultural “homogenisation” has been widely predicted,in Europe as elsewhere in the world. However, there are also some countertrends. One of these is the conscious rediscovery and revival of distinctive culturalpractices, also of older minority languages, literatures and customs. Secondly, newcultural openness and relativism (the postmodern spirit in effect) have encouragedthe forging of new life-styles, involving a mixture of cultural elements. Thirdly,there have been new waves of immigration into Europe and across its frontiers.National societies are becoming more and more “multicultural” as a result, withsignificant minorities bringing with them their own religious practices, dress andother customs. More enlightened political and social policies have protected suchminorities from pressure to assimilate and given rights to maintaining culturalidentity.The potential centrality and significance of mass media in these matters stemsfrom their popularity and extensive occupation of the cultural environment, theirinfluence in matters of language, symbolic representation and meaning. If one limitsattention to the main areas of cultural diversity to which the media are thoughtto be relevant, the following potential effects of media come to mind:– expressing and maintaining the “national cultural identity” of existing nationstateswithin the wider Europe;– expressing and maintaining subnational and cultural identities, based on religion,region, language or other attributes;– helping immigrant minorities to make satisfactory contact with their host environmentand vice-versa, while at the same time keeping some cultural autonomyand equality of status as citizens;– serving the diverse cultural needs of citizens of Europe, according to a widerange of other dimensions, including class, age, gender, taste, leisure interests;– establishing some common cultural identity as citizens and members of awider European community, in support of more democratic political institutionsand in legitimation of the “European project”.Some of these effects (they could also be goals of policy) involve contradictionsand none are easy to attain in a planned way. This paper will briefly summarisecertain features of media systems and of European media policy and the mainresearch findings relevant to “media cultural diversity”. Diversity (or its absence)can be identified in different forms and at several points in the process of masscommunication. 1 The issue arises especially in respect of the following: ownership__________1. For a general discussion of these matters see McQuail and Cuilenburg, 1983. Also McQuail, 1992.74