The global platforms in search engines, content aggregation and social media are challenging long-standing regulatory systems of media. How can media pluralism be studied and assessed in the age of Facebook and Google? asks Helle Sjøvaag of the University of Bergen.

The author writes that media diversity can be considered on five levels: structure, organisation, production, output, and reception of media messages. More consideration is needed, however, on the infrastructure of media. Researchers should include structures in their analyses.

Opening up the levels of analysis helps to illustrate three things, Sjøvaag writes. These include: where parameters of diversity are important to achieve pluralism in media; on what levels it is important to apply regulation to ensure democratic deliberation; and where in the system can data about diversity be obtained. The power concentration enabled by the growing superplayers must be taken seriously, the author concludes.

“Media diversity and the global superplayers” was published in Journal of Media Business Studies and is available online (free abstract).

Picture: Level 5 by Alex Grodkiewicz, license CC0 1.0.