Page - 42 - in Media – Migration – Integration - European and North American Perspectives

Rainer Geißler/Sonja Weber-Menges | Media Reception and Ideas on Media Integration 42 Foreign-language supplements to German daily newspapers are also considered desirable, especially among the Turks. On the other hand, there is little interest in “genuine ethnic media” produced by migrants themselves in Germany. In general, Russo-Germans voice a demand for increased participation in the production of the German mass media less frequently than migrants from Turkey and Italy. 3. Summary Of the three complexes media use, media content, and media production, the use made of the media corresponds most closely to our model of media integration. The majority of migrants makes use of both German and ethnic media. Thus, the German public sphere and ethnic sub-spheres are in general interconnected with one another. Only small minorities live in media ghettos. In contrast, media content – of both German and ethnic media – meets with a great deal of skepticism on the part of migrants. Mass media programs are judged to be substantially lacking in integrating effects. This sort of criticism is most common among Turks, most rare among Russo-Germans. Large segments of the Russo-German population have undergone assimilative media integration. Such differences can be plausibly explained by the hypothesis of cultural conflict: the more remote from one another the cultures of migrant and indigenous groups are, the more complications are involved in media integration. Migrants also note a distinct lack of integrating effects in the production of German mainstream mass media. For these groups, increased participation of migrants in media production is an important demand to counteract the dominance of negative images in the media’s representation of migrants. 4. References Esser, Hartmut (2001): Integration und ethnische Schichtung. Mannheim: Mannheimer Zentrum für Europäische Sozialforschung. Arbeitspapier Nr. 40 Fleras, Augie/Elliot, Jean Leonard (1992): Multiculturalism in Canada. The Challenge of Diversity. Scarborough, Ontario Fleras, Augie/Elliot, Jean Leonard (2002): Engaging Diversity. Multicultura- lism in Canada. 2nd edition Toronto