Page - 83 - in Media – Migration – Integration - European and North American Perspectives

Petra Herczeg | Migrants and Ethnic Minorities in Austria 83 The case of Arigona also attracted the attention of the international mass media. The story was covered e.g. by the French newspaper “Le Monde”, by the “Herald Tribune” and by the “Associated Press”. The international re- porting touched upon a crucial point relevant to integration: The Zogaj family’s story has fanned a fiery debate in Austria about deporting well integrated foreigners who seek asylum and often try to stay on illegally when their applications are rejected. It is a debate similar to those in other European countries, where conflicts about immigration are often tied to questions of national identity and humanitarianism.” (Associated Press, 6th Oct 2007) Here again, after the Waldheim controversy and the debates focused on the participation of a right-wing party in the government, Austrian politics were portrayed in a negative context on an international scale. 4. Ethnic Groups, Migrants and their Media To gain attention from the general public, minorities must be present in the mass media. Multilingual programmes on radio and television provide suitable opportunities to achieve this aim. In the awareness of the general public, ethnic groups are often seen in folkloristic contexts, and migrants are often associated with negative media coverage. The relevant surveys demonstrate that the media primarily convey negative images of migrants. There are no quantitative surveys on the media use of migrants in Austria. This implies that there is no reliable information on migrants’ use, for example, of Turkish television programmes or of print media. In a research overview, Piga states (Piga 2007, 226) that the quantitative dimensions of the motivation behind migrants’ media use have been studied extensively, but this does not apply to the situation in Austrian. The ORF (Austrian Broadcasting Corporation) is now planning a survey on migrants’ use of television in Austria modelled on the ARD/ZDF study „Migranten und Medien 2007“. This is a first step in demonstrating that the non-uniform group of migrants is also considered a target group by the Austrian public broadcasting company. For migrants, the Austrian media landscape is rather limited. On Austrian television, there is only one weekly programme for all groups of migrants: “Heimat, fremde Heimat”, a programme broadcast on Sunday afternoons. The aim of the programme, as described by the editorial staff, is “to support togetherness, cultural variety and integration in Austria”. Target groups are “Austrians who are interested in ethnic issues, naturalized immigrants, long- term residents of foreign nationalities and members of Austrian ethnic