Online platforms and cultural diversity in the audiovisual sectors: a combined look at concentration and algorithms

Online platforms have become pervasive, unavoidable actors, in particular on audio-visual markets. Often accused of being detrimental to competition and of restricting users’ actual choices, their impact on diversity however remains understudied. This chapter offers a general reflection about the role played by online platforms in providing diversity. To do so, it first provides a conceptual framework that allows to address the interactions between various dimensions of diversity. Most of all, it reconciles two approaches that are often left apart: the analysis in terms of competition (what is the competitive impact of online platforms? To what extent does competition foster or prohibit diversity?); and the study of how online platforms can influence consumer choices, in particular via their recommendation systems. The chapter is therefore one of the first to combine a macro and a micro approaches of online platforms, crucial to start assessing their impact on diversity.

ISBN:9781138384453