Diversity - An End in Itself?

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Abstract
The scope of this article is methodological, focusing on the measurement of programme diversity on television. In recent research literature programme diversity has been understood too narrowly. In order to avoid typical pitfalls of diversity studies, the article discusses the concept and dimensions of diversity and, then, develops four parallel measures of breadth of programming and difference between channels, applicable for the analysis of both individual channels and the channel system as a whole. These measures (channel diversity, system diversity, deviation and choice options) are tested in a longitudinal analysis of Finnish television schedules. The article demonstrates that since shifts in the different dimensions of diversity are not necessarily unilinear, the multi-measure method tends to provide a more versatile picture of the developments in programme schedules than the traditional diversity analysis can do.