Abstract
This study explores the processes of, motivations for, and market consequences of bilingual journalism in Spain, and considers this phenomenon in the context of linguistics, identity, and theorizing about nationhood. Based on newsroom observation and interviews with journalists at newspapers in Catalonia, the Basque Country, and Galicia, this article develops a framework of production, content, and tailored bilingualism for understanding the operations of this fledgling form of journalism. Moreover, against the backdrop of local nationalism, ethno-linguistic identity, and advocacy journalism, this study posits that a modulated approach to Anderson's (1983) concept of “imagined communities” might begin to explain the rise of bilingual journalism in certain regions of Spain. Newspaper editors there have imagined language communities—niche “nations” of readers with whom they feel a special kinship and for whom they feel a moral obligation to preserve the ethnic language. This “public service” comes at a heavy cost: An analysis of circulation data demonstrates that the most aggressive bilingual journalism has failed to attract wide readership, calling into question the very essence of the editors’ imagined communities and their efforts to serve them. Finally, this paper considers the Spanish case in the wider context of global media trends.
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