The Sisyphean Pursuit of Media Pluralism: European Efforts to Establish Policy and Measurable Evidence

Abstract

Media pluralism has been continually debated among European policymakers for the past four decades, but the activity has failed to produce consensus, clear policy, and significant implementing legislation, laws, and rules. The efforts provide lessons for policymakers and media reform movements elsewhere. The European failure derives from debates over whether pluralism should be sought at the national or European level, and whether it should focus only upon media ownership concerns or upon broader issues involving minorities, geography and culture. European policymakers, however, have progressed in clarifying pluralism concepts and means for measuring them. This policy review argues that European efforts to promote media pluralism fall within expected patterns of policy process theories, but have nevertheless been unable to produce significant movement because policymakers weigh competition, industrial and domestic cultural policy objectives against media pluralism goals and because the expanded concept of pluralism is complex and amorphous and has resulted in policy drift.