Between Digitalization, Revitalization and Minority-Majority Relationship
Journalists reporting in Hungarian in Romania, news from Radio New Zealand in Māori or a Twitter campaign in Gaelic - all over the world, members of minorities use a wide variety of media to report on their own topics in their own languages in their own formats. What challenges do they currently face?
This is the question posed by the second conference of the International Association for Minority Language Media Research (IAMLMR), which was only founded in 2019. From March 31 to April 1, scholars from all over the world will come together at Europa-Universität Flensburg to discuss the current situation of minority media together with members of minorities and journalists.
Minorities and Digital Media
"How do members of minorities use social or digitalized media? These are media that function very much through visuality and less through writing. Can, and if so how, minority media benefit from Twitter, Instagram, Facebook & Co. How does this change the content of media production? Are there specific risks associated with using these media? ", co-organizer Craig Willis outlines some of the conference questions. Others include how indigenous and minoritized communities can develop digital capabilities, what kind of actors, institutions, and platforms they need for a vibrant community, and to what extent the cultural or linguistic majority is willing to support minority media financially and structurally.
A roundtable will discuss the question of the status of local minority languages in the digital age using practical examples from the German and Danish minorities in the region.
International Exchange
In addition to the relevance of minority media for the preservation and revitalization of minority communities and languages, the conference will focus on international exchange. "We are bringing scholars and language users from around the world together to learn from each other," Willis emphasizes. Accordingly, the research field extends from South America, Central America and Europe to Asia.
The conference is organized by the Europa-Universität Flensburg, the European Center for Minority Issues (ECMI) in Flensburg and the Basque Universidad del País Vasco.