Media pluralism policies from the user perspective

Existing media diversity policies have had and will continue to have an important role in realizing the overall diversity of media content available.1 The various measures that exist in the member states, and at a European level, to promote a diversity of sources and independent media suppliers, as well as diversity in the output of individual media outlets, have firmly put their stamp on the structure of national media markets. When creating the conditions that users can benefit from media diversity, media law and policy are continuously being challenged to take into account the dynamics of permanently evolving media markets. A dynamic element that so far has played only a marginal role in traditional diversity policies, and which shall be at the focus of this chapter, is the changing role of the audience, and its increasingly complex relationship with the suppliers of media content.