Diversity represents one of the key concerns for modern society and various associated fields of knowledge and practice. Journalism stands in the avant-garde of diversity promotion, motivated by the ideals of objectivity and the post-modern plurality of opinions. Specifically, diversity promotes informational representativeness and provides unique insights and facets of issues that cannot be uncovered otherwise. However, despite its apparent benefits, diversity also possesses certain drawbacks, making the topic quite controversial in the context of contemporary practices.
The media’s monoculturalism has been almost ubiquitous during the last century despite several initiatives to diversify the employed staff and news coverage. The situation with diversity has only begun to improve in the second decade of the 21st century due to globalization and the anti-bias agenda (Karppinen, 2018). In addition, the widespread accessibility of communication means allowed for the creation of digital journalism and its associated domains, such as citizen journalism and news blogs (Loecherbach et al., 2020). In this context, the professional requirement for entering the mass media and sharing opinions has been significantly reduced. Nevertheless, globalization had another particular effect on global journalism – the so-called interventionist approach. It can be described as externally promoting tolerance and diversity in countries with more restrictive immigration and emancipation policies (Mertens et al., 2019). When such practices reach their peak, they start promoting aggression and bias instead of the sought ideals.
In my opinion, even the most altruistic intent can have negative consequences if left unchecked. Indeed, objectivity and informational plurality were, are, and will remain the main goals of journalism. However, the desire to achieve a plurality should not directly conflict with its own concept. The plurality of opinions implies acknowledgment of opposite opinions’ existence. Consequently, forcing the ideas of diversity would mean denying its core idea and, thus, should not be encouraged.
References
Karppinen, K. (2018). Journalism, Pluralism, and Diversity. In T. P. Vos (ed.), Handbooks of Communication Science (pp. 493-510). De Gruyter Mouton.
Mertens, S., Standaert, O., d’Haenens, L., & De Cock, R. (2019). Diversity in Western Countries: Journalism Culture, Migration Integration Policy and Public Opinion. Media and Communication, 7(1), 66-76.
Loecherbach, F., Moeller, J., Trilling, D., & van Atteveldt, W. (2020). The unified framework of media diversity: A systematic literature review. Digital Journalism, 8(5), 605-642.