Managing the mosaic: diversity of voices and deliberative policy making in English Canadian media

This study investigates viewpoints on policy for diversity in media subsequent to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC)’s 2007-5 diversity of voices proceedings and subsequent CRTC 2008-4 regulatory changes. The policy proceedings were designed to aggregate and act upon the many policy preferences and conceptions of media diversity within Canada’s complex media mosaic. Research reported here uses Q methodology, complemented with conventional survey questions and open-ended qualitative questions, to identify and interpret the plurality of subjective viewpoints surrounding the diversity debate and the CRTC’s deliberative policymaking processes. Research identified four principal viewpoints regarding policy for media diversity, based on concerns about minority representation, industry consolidation, Canadian cultural expression, and a comprehensive marketplace of ideas. It also considers various stakeholder viewpoints on the CRTC’s 2007-5 deliberative proceedings, and the extent to which the Commission’s deliberative processes meet the four deliberative democratic pillars of inclusiveness, equality, reasonableness and publicity.