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Listening in to minorities in societal dialogue

Listening in to minorities in societal dialogue. TOM MORING SWEDISH SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI TOM.MORING (at) HELSINKI.FI. Why do we need a media policy for minorities at all ?.

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Listening in to minorities in societal dialogue

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  1. Listening in to minorities in societal dialogue TOM MORING SWEDISH SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI TOM.MORING (at) HELSINKI.FI Tom Moring, CIF, 4.8.2009

  2. Whydoweneed a media policy for minorities at all? • In a minority language situation, the media sector is more likely to interfere with mother-tongue transmission than support it. • The media effect tends to undermine minority identities by accelerating language shift and assimilation of minority communities • To counter this, minority-language media performs a restitutionaryfunction by balancing the media impact Tom Moring, CIF, 4.8.2009

  3. Restitutionary? The act of restoring something that has been taken away, lost, or surrendered The act of making good or compensating for loss, damage, or injury A restoration of a previous state or position Tom Moring, CIF, 4.8.2009

  4. A functionalview on media for minorities • Different media carry different functions • Substitutive strategies do not work in protection of minorities • Institutional completeness is an ultimate goal (”necessary but not sufficient”) • Functional completeness requires the strict preference condition to be met Tom Moring, CIF, 4.8.2009

  5. Strict preference condition • The target public, ceteris paribus, must display a net preference for carrying out at least some of their activities in their (minority) language rather than in the majority language. • If this condition is not (or only weakly) met, protection and promotional measures will be ineffectual Source: Grin, Moring et al. 2003, 190 Tom Moring, CIF, 4.8.2009

  6. Research shows… • That the strict preference condition is met if quality is good • Quality requires genre-diversity and regional diversity also in minority media • New media should be no exception • New media is cost effective to establish (compare to radio) Source: Grin, Moring et al. 2003 Tom Moring, CIF, 4.8.2009

  7. Seven aspects of minority media impact on language and culture • a symbolic role for communities that signals that the language and the community are able to cope fully with the contemporary world • an economic role, providing career prospects for young people who want to work from within a minority language/culture • a role in developing a public sphere within a community which can carry a distinct cultural agenda • a representational role allowing the community to be represented both within itself and to outsiders • the role as a key conveyor of culture and producer of cultural products • providing an opportunity to use a language routinely on a daily basis as a listener or reader of the language • the continuous re-construction of language/culture and the development and diffusion of language/culture innovation in a changing world.

  8. Positioning the subjects of the media A division of functions: • ‘for the Community’ • authorities address the minority populations + sharing information, countering segregation – integration or assimilation? • ‘of the Community’ • minorities publish their own media + participation through group identity – marginalization? • ‘from the Community’ • minorities are presented in main media + visibility of the group in society – tokenist representation • ‘to the Community’ • diasporic media + rich content – formation of sphericules?

  9. Media: what does it reveal; What does it hide? • Supply side: • Radio for the community • Press = reading, ‘short-term memory’ • TV for visibility • Internet for strengthened self-determination • The demand side • Society needs to support the media for minorities • Society needs to listen in • An obligation to understand (?) Tom Moring, CIF, 4.8.2009

  10. This also concerns new media • 84 percent of Internet use is in the top ten languages Tom Moring, CIF, 4.8.2009

  11. Why is particularattention to New Media for minoritiesimportant? • A lot of potenial: • Maintenance of cultural identity • Diasporic media • ’Super-local’ media (community media) • Formation of new types of public spheres and networks • A lot of dangers • A new boost of hate-speech • Forum for terror, drugs, new forms of violent behavior (Jokela, Kauhajoki school shootings) • Isolation of minorities into separated spheres (’sphericules’) Tom Moring, CIF, 4.8.2009

  12. ”Digital/social imbrication” • New Media mediatizes fields that have not been considered to be part of the media world, such as how people communicate with and within administration and business. • The increasing role of new media leads to this direction. • Authorities communicate increasingly often with the public through the medium of Internet. • What does this mean to the right to use a minority language in communication with the authorities? (Cf. Sassen 2006) Tom Moring, CIF, 4.8.2009

  13. Some (comparative) views on regulations in an EU perspective How does EU treat (cultural) rights of minorities? • Negative regulations of migration are binding • The Schengen Treaty 1985 • The Schengen Implementation Treaty (1995): internal border controls abolished; external border controls increased • Since September 11th, 2001 a change of paradigms with combating illegal migration becoming an EU top priority • Readmission Agreements oblige countries to take back migrants who entered this way into the Schengen area • The construction of ‘fortress Europe’ as a set of concentric circles began to take shape Source: Brigitta Busch and Michal Krzyzanowski 2007 Tom Moring, CIF, 4.8.2009

  14. Fortress Europe Source: Brigitta Busch and Michal Krzyzanowski 2007 Tom Moring, CIF, 4.8.2009

  15. A new apartheid • European citizens (citoyens, civic citizens) are categorized into different classes • citizens who hold an EU passport from a pre-2004 member state • 'second-class citizens' who do not immediately enjoy full freedoms to live and to work anywhere within the EU (until 2014, from 9 new EU states) • the mobile elite from 'rich' so-called 'third countries', highly skilled and highly valued professionals • Fourthly, and in sharp distinction • migrant workers also from so called 'third countries‘ • 'illegal migrants', ‘sans-papiers’ ; pariahs of contemporary society, deprived of rights and protection Source: Brigitta Busch and Michal Krzyzanowski 2007 Tom Moring, CIF, 4.8.2009

  16. From migration rules follows a negative discourse • Designation of in-groups and out-groups (‘we’ vs. ‘they’) • positive self-presentation • negative other-presentation •  Immigrants are stereotypically represented • different, deviant, a threat to 'us • metaphors borrowed from the military/catastrophy register (e.g. invasion, army of illegals; flood, tide) • serves to justify rhetoric and practice of fortifying the border. • over-emphasis on ethnic and immigrant crime • Negative images of migrants in the media are rarely compensated by positive reporting of their living conditions Source: Brigitta Busch and Michal Krzyzanowski 2007 Tom Moring, CIF, 4.8.2009

  17. In contrast to migration policies, affirmative media policies are non-binding • Non-binding Charter of fundamental rights of the EU • Articles 21 and 22 on non-discrimination and respect for minorities (with the Lisbon Treaty, it will bind EU institutions but not states) • Binding but not enforceable treaties of the Council of Europe (cover autochthonous, not migrant minorities) • The Framework Concvention for the Protection of National Minorities • The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages • Non-enforceable principles of the OSCE and the UN • OSCE Oslo Recommendations, Broadcasting Guidelines • UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Tom Moring, CIF, 4.8.2009

  18. A need for regulations of media rights • Regulation is possible, also of new media • Affirmative principles of restitutionary character are not against freedom of expression • New media require new regulatory measures (eg., hate speech) through self- and co-regulation Tom Moring, CIF, 4.8.2009

  19. References • Breton, Raymond, “Institutional Completeness of Ethnic Communities and the Personal Relations of Immigrants”, 70 The American Journal of Sociology (1964), 193-205. • Bucy, Erik, “Social Access to the Internet”, 5 Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics (2000), 50-61. • Busch, Brigitta and Michael Krzyzanowski (2007). ‘Outside/Inside the EU: Enlargement, Migration Policies and the Search for Europe’s Identity’, in Anderson, James and Armstrong, Warwick (eds.) Geopolitics of European Union Enlargement: The • Busch, Brigitta, Sprachen im Disput: Medien und Öffentlichkeit in multilingualen Gesellschaften (Drava Diskurs, Klagenfurt, 2004). • Charter of Fundamental Rights of The European Union (2000/C 364/01). • Cormack, Mike, “Developing Minority Language Media Studies”, 7(1) Mercator Media Forum (2004), 3-12. • Cormack, Mike and Hourigan, Niamh (eds.) Minority Language Media: Concepts, Critiques and Case Studies (Multilingual Matters, Clevedon, 2007). • D'Haenens, Leen, Koeman, Joyce and Saeys, Frieda (eds.), “Digital citizenship among ethnic minority youths in the Netherlands and Flanders”, 9 New Media & Society (2007), 278-299. • Downing, John and Charles Husband (2005), Representing ‘Race’. Racisms, Ethnicities and Media. London: Sage. • ETS 157. Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.. European Treay Series 157/1995. http://conventions.coe.int/treaty/en/Treaties/Html/157.htm • ETS 148. European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. European Treaty Series 148/1992. www.coe.int/T/E/Legal_Affairs/Local_and_regional_Democracy/Regional_or_Minority_languages/1_The_Charter/List_Charter_versions.asp#TopOfPage

  20. Fishman, Joshua. A., “From Theory to Practice (and Vice Versa): Review, Reconsideration and Reiteration” in id., Can Threatened Languages Be Saved? Reversing Language Shift, Revisited: A 21st Century Perspective (Multilingual Matters, Clevedon, 2001), 451-483. • Georgiou, Myria, “Mapping Diasporic Media across the EU: Addressing Cultural Exclusion”, Key Deliverable: The European Media and Technology in Everyday Life Network, 2000-2003, at <http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/EMTEL/reports/georgiou_2003_emtel.pdf> • Guidelines on the Use of Minority Languages in the Broadcast Media, issued by the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities. www.osce.org/hcnm/item_11_31598.html • Grin, François & Tom Moring, with Durk Gorter, Johan Häggman, Dónall Ó Riagáin and Miquel Strubell (2003) Support for Minority Languages in Europe, Final Report on a project financed by the European Commission, Directorate Education and Culture. Online document - http://europa.eu.int/comm/education/policies/lang/langmin/support.pdf (Retrieved 29.7.2006) • Guidelines on the use of Minority Languages in the Broadcast Media. The Hague: Office of the High Commissioner on National Minorities, 2003 at http://www.osce.org/documents/hcnm/2003/10/2242_en.pdf>. (Retrieved 29 July 2006) • Jakubowicz, Karol, “Minority Media Rights: A Brief Overview” 8 Mercator Media Forum (2005), 100-113. • Jakubowicz, Karol, “Committee of Experts on Issues Relating to the Protection of National Minorities (DH-MIN), Comments on the draft report on ‘Access of National Minorities to the Media: New Challenges’” Report prepared by Karol Jakubowicz, DH-MIN(2006)017 Council of Europe, at http://www.coe.int/t/e/human_rights/minorities/4._intergovernmental_co-operation_%28dh-min%29/2._documents/PDF_DH-MIN(2006)017%20KJ_Comments_Access_natmin_media_eng.pdf • McGonagle, Tarlach and Price, Monroe, “Overview of the Survey of State Practice: Minority-Language Related Broadcasting and Legislation in the OSCE” 8 Mercator Media Forum (2005), 32-83.

  21. Committee of Experts on Issues Relating to the Protection of National Minorities (DH-MIN), “Access of National Minorities to the Media: New Challenges”, Report prepared by Tom Moring, DH-MIN(2006)015, Council of Europe, Presented in the meeting of DH-MIN, Strasbourg, 20 October 2006, at http://www.coe.int/t/e/human_rights/minorities/4._INTERGOVERNMENTAL_CO-OPERATION_(DH-MIN)/2._Documents/DH_MIN_WorkingDocuments_eng.asp#TopOfPage>. • Moring, Tom, “Functional Completeness in Minority Language Media”, in Mike Cormack and Niamh Hourigan, (eds.), Minority Language Media: Concepts, Critiques and Case Studies (Multilingual Matters Ltd, Clevedon, 2007), 17-33. • Moring, Tom and Dunbar, Robert (2008) “The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and the Media”, Study commissioned by the Secretariat for the Charter of Regional or Minority Languages, Council of Europe. • Oslo Recommendations Regarding the Linguistic Rights of National Minorities and Explanatory Note. The Hague: Office of the High Commissioner on National Minorities, 1998. at http://www1.osce.org/documents/hcnm/1998/02/2699_en.pdf>. • Robins, Kevin, “The challenge of transcultural diversities. Transversal study on the theme of cultural policy and cultural diversity” (Cultural and Cultural Heritage Department, Council of Europe Publishing, Strasbourg, 2006). • Schultz, Wolfgang and Held, Thorsten, “Regulated Self-Regulation as a Form of Modern Government”, Arbeitspapiere des Hans Bredow-Instituts Nr. 8, Hans Bredow Institute for Media Research, Hamburg (2001). • United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007) United Nations A/61/L.67, 7 September 2007. • Varennes, Fernand de, “Language Rights as an integral Part of Human Rights” 3(2) MOST Journal on Multicultural Societies (2001). at http://portal.unesco.org/shs/en/ev.php-URL_ID=2731&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html.

  22. Thank you! for your time, attention and interest Tom Moring, CIF, 4.8.2009

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