Page - 89 - in Media – Migration – Integration - European and North American Perspectives

Petra Herczeg | Migrants and Ethnic Minorities in Austria 89 4.2.3 Public Community Radio For the Austrian ethnic minorities, there has been an increase in the programmes provided by the medium-wave (AM) station Radio 1476 – especially for Czechs, Slovaks, Hungarians and Roma in Vienna. For the most part, these are bilingual news programmes for ethnic groups, but a major focus is on recruiting youths who are encouraged to work for the radio. The hope is that this could lead to a stronger identification with the programme and demonstrate that the use of minority languages in the public sphere is important for the self-confidence of both individuals and groups. Collaborations with schools like the “Komensky Gymnasium”, which are supported by the Education Ministry, make all those involved in school life (students, teachers, parents) aware of the significance of taking part in communicative societal action in languages other than that of the majority. Youths can achieve better language and media competence when they engage in making broadcasts and decide to use their mother tongue to convey ideas and concepts through the media. There are specific problems involved in the use of the languages of Sinti and Roma. Even within the minority, knowledge of their languages is not very extensive, so that the Roma Radio Kaktus is, in fact, multilingual: German may be the lingua franca, yet the various languages of European Roma (Romani, Sinti, Lovara-Romani) are also used. Dialects of Romani from Romania, Serbia or Montenegro, such as Gurbet, Dambaz, Erli, are also spoken. Topics frequently dealt with here include the history and persecution of the minorities, but also the struggle against discrimination and poverty. Radio 1476’s programmes are also available on the Internet at http://1476.orf.at. 4.3 Alternative Media and Migrants For the past ten years, one particular project of the ORF medium-wave station “Radio 1476”, multilingual “Radio Africa”, has been dealing with issues relevant to the African community in Austria and has become a community- building factor. The people collaborating on this project have also established additional Internet services and cooperate with others in broadcasting African television programmes in Vienna. These examples illustrate that media and their editorial staff are not simply producers of certain programmes, but that they can promote integration by dealing with certain topics and representing migrants in certain ways. As mentioned above, the public broadcasting company is required by law to represent all relevant groups of society, ethnic minorities included. Yet, the