Media and minority languages

Abstract

This chapter begins with a definition of minority languages and minority language media within the framework of media in minority contexts and a brief review of some of the disciplinary perspectives involved in their study. It highlights transnational networks and geolinguistic regions as two ways scholars are studying minority languages in the media. The chapter presents the potential and pitfalls of electronic media and questions for future to signal the issues that remain to be addressed. It provides a case for studying minority language media as potential drivers of the North–South dialogue, in one instance, and Africa, in another. Categories are defined for a purpose, and the purpose of media categories can be used to define a field, or more particularly to delimit research frameworks, focusing on minority language media and media in minority contexts. Media and communication studies provide important areas of inquiry including dimensions of policy, production, representation, and relationship between the media and the audiences.