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.