OZR backup mandate: Operationalising news diversity for the Flemish media landscape and beyond: implications and opportunities for journalism and society

The aim of this project is to develop a set of research methods and variables to operationalise news diversity for the Flemish media market. Existing research laments the lack of a holistic definition and theoretical framework on how to assess, quantify, qualify and ultimately operationalise news diversity in media landscapes. My aim is to fill this widening gap – an increasingly pressing issue now that rapidly changing landscapes are rendering existing paradigms and research methods obsolete (Hendrickx et al., 2020; Joris et al., 2020; Loecherbach et al., 2020).
I propose a holistic approach of news diversity, which encompasses five subcategories: ownership, brand, production, content and consumption diversity. It involves a mixed methods research design to comprehensively assess news diversity in the Flemish market.
This wide approach allows scientific research to advance, as this has been consistently been too narrow in size and scope.
Through multiple peer-reviewed publications in highly ranked journals, I have acquainted myself with news diversity and the problems its usage and lack of operationalisation entails. As my PhD is centred around conceptualising the moniker, I want to continue with the next necessary step to improve knowledge and (research) skills, by operationalising news diversity through this postdoctoral research proposal. This will enable a strengthening of my professional expertise and advancements in science on news diversity research, simultaneously.