On political interests and self-serving diversity: How state policymakers envision public service media

Since 2012, diversity has been a declared pillar of Public Service Media (PSM) organizations worldwide–yet the term lacks conceptual clarity. This article offers an empirical analysis of how diversity is discussed and conceptualized in the process of legislating a new PSM law. Through reflexive thematic analysis of 160 transcripts of Israel’s parliament discussions during 2012–2018, we find that policymakers approach diversity as a crucial feature in PSM organizations, yet seem unable to produce an operationalizable definition of it. Our findings suggest diversity is easily manipulated for political interests–a phenomenon we coin as “self-serving diversity.” The Israeli case herein contributes a data-based approach to theorizing media diversity as a bendable ideology rather than a concrete embracive approach to society.