Page - 84 - in Media – Migration – Integration - European and North American Perspectives

Petra Herczeg | Migrants and Ethnic Minorities in Austria 84 groups”. The programme is presented in German; the persons interviewed on the program use their native tongues, and their statements are translated with the use of German subtitles. Every Sunday evening, the regional radio station of Vienna broadcasts a radio programme of the same name. A wide variety of topics ranging from political developments to folkloristic features are covered here, often with interviews of minority representatives, members of ethnic minorities, and migrants. In the Austrian media system, the number of migrants involved in production is negligible. Only in the minority department of the ORF can journalists of a migration background be found. The minority department of the ORF is managed by Silvana Meixner, a migrant from Croatia, who is one of the anchorpersons of the television program “Heimat, fremde Heimat”. Another anchorperson is Lakis Iordanopoulos, who originally came from Greece to study in Austria and eventually settled here indefinitely. The opportunity to become involved in the production of media is a crucial point relevant to integration, for in this way the perspectives of minorities can be integrated into the majority media, and minorities involved in media production can ensure that suitable ethnic programs are offered. The specific forms that media use and gratifications take are closely related to which generation of migrants a person belongs to. German surveys on television use of Turkish migrants indicate that the elder generation attempted to deal with homesickness and to reinforce their relationship with the old country by watching television programmes from Turkey (Aumüller 2007, 39) – a type of media consumption not perpetuated by the younger generations. Ethnic media can support an orientation directed towards the host country. Yet, ethnic media can also inhibit the disposition to integrate if, instead, there is an emphasis on content that promotes segregation (Geißler/Pöttker 2005, 396). Although there are no similar empirical data available for Austria, the surveys of ethnic media use mentioned above can indicate which problems have to be coped with by other migrants and can demonstrate how ethnic media have been able to build bridges between various cultures. Migrants’ integration involves a learning process the results of which can range from complete adaptation (assimilation) to a type of adaptation that allows for cooperation within the framework of the majority society. Only this second type allows for cultural diversity. Weiss considers whether maintaining ethnically influenced cultural habits is a barrier to integration and raises the question, “Where can the borderline be drawn between the cultural adaptation required for mastering professional and everyday life on the one hand and assimilation on the other?” (Weiss 2007, 14).