Television minority languages in Europe

Television minority languages in Europe

Most European linguistic communities have been given a major role on television in their efforts to maintain the language. But is not sufficiently studied the role of this medium in the dynamics of minority languages. Comparative research can help us better understand that role.

On the other hand, in the era of globalization and as a result of migrations and other phenomena we can observe emerging linguistic realities that show another dimension of the relationship between television and minority languages. We refer to the millions of immigrants scattered across the continent using television broadcasts in their own language.

These two realities (TV in so-called Regional Minority Languages and in Immigrant Minority Languages) can be studied together, figuring out what their commonalities and their differences are.

Finally, digitization is promoting changes in depth in this field: media convergence, interactivity, increase in supply etc. These and other changes must lead to new approaches to help us understand the relationship between languages and that medium that, until now, we have called “television”.