Tony Bennett, Differing diversities - Council of Europe

Reasearch position paper 1and control of media; the structure of distribution systems; the content that isoffered; the composition of audiences and the patterns of use.Media structure and cultural diversityMost of the mass media in Europe are run as private businesses and any benefit (orharm) to the cause of cultural diversity as indicated by the above-mentioned goalshas to be mediated through the market, with conditions varying from country tocountry. In general it is thought that large scale and concentrated media workagainst cultural diversity. However, Europe is very variable in the degree of concentrationand centralisation of its media and in many countries there are strongregional and local media press systems. 1 Cable and other forms of distributionhave helped to increase the range of television channels and to develop local andcommunity media provision. 2 The general view from the media industry is thatminority media cultural needs can generally be met by the free media market, providedsufficient demand is present. However, the media market favours largermarket segments as well as richer and younger customers, and may not serve theneeds of many social and cultural minorities that do not meet these criteria. We canthus expect to find inconsistent trends as a result of market forces – sometimestowards diversity, sometimes towards homogeneity and convergence.Media policy for cultural diversity in EuropeGovernments are not generally able to intervene effectively in media in order tofoster the goal of cultural diversity, although attempts have been made by way ofpress subsidies and other forms of support. 3 Even in relation to broadcasting, governmenthas to keep its distance from decisions about content and public broadcastinghas to make its way in a competitive audience market. Most policy decisionsabout the media and cultural diversity are taken at national level andcountries have generally been jealous of their sovereignty in this respect. As aresult, the scope for European level action is very limited and policy initiatives aremainly confined to aims that cannot be achieved at national level (the subsidiarityprinciple at work).National media policy has promoted cultural diversity in varied ways, accordingto criteria that happen to be salient in the given case (for instance, language,region, ethnicity, religion, gender, etc.). There is also variation according to themedium concerned. In the case of newspapers, there is little policy or regulation,but some national subsidy systems target selective subsidies at specific publications.Murschetz (1998) cites the example of Norway, where subsidies are availablefor immigrant community publications and those of the Sami indigenousminority. Broadcasting regulation offers numerous examples of requirements to__________1. See, for example, Gustafsson and Weibull, 1997; De Bens and Østbye, 1998.2. See Jankowski, Prehn and Stappers, 1992.3. See, for instance, Picard, 1985; Skogerbo, 1997.75