Page - 90 - in Media – Migration – Integration - European and North American Perspectives

Petra Herczeg | Migrants and Ethnic Minorities in Austria 90 much larger group of migrants is neglected by laws on broadcasting and by most of the broadcasting companies. There is a tradition of dealing with issues relevant to migrants among alternative broadcasters. Since independent radio stations began their operations, various groups of migrants have been able to produce programmes in their own languages. Radio Orange, e.g., (located in Vienna) broadcasts programmes from different editorial groups in the Turkish, Bosnian, Serb, Croatian, Portuguese, Spanish and French languages. Radio Orange also offers courses on the technical and editorial production of radio programmes. In Linz, Radio FRO (Free Radio Oberösterreich-Upper Austria) has been broadcasting programmes for migrants since 1998. The staff of Radio FRO explains its immediate popularity with compensating for the intervals when Turkish satellite television was not broadcasting. The audience reacted with enthusiasm and felt that Radio FRO was providing important services. Another alternative, independent radio station in Austria is the “Radiofabrik” (located in Salzburg). This station offers multilingual programmes such as “Bosporus Nights”, with a Turkish student who dedicates the programme to his home city of Istanbul and tries to build bridges between Salzburg and Istanbul by the means of jazz, hip hop, pop and rock music and by talking with guests from countries all over the world, with Turkish being the language most often used. Similar programs include “Zenska Soba”, a bilingual programme for women in the Bosnian and German languages, “Lusophonica” in Portuguese, and “Vecer u Radio” in Serbo-Croatian with programs related to the natural surroundings, culture and society “of a country that no longer exists”. Descriptions of the programmes can be found on the Internet, where listeners can also make their opinions known or vote on options for certain programmes. On the whole, independent radio stations broadcast programmes in more than 20 languages. In contrast to the print media, such radio stations provide migrant groups with a lower-cost opportunity of making their presence felt in the public sphere and of reaching the members of their particular target groups (Busch/Peissl 2003, 189f). As noted above, one of the dilemmas of the radio producers is the question of how to reach the target groups, which, much like majority target groups, consist of different people with various needs and interests and various approaches to the media. 4.4 Easy Access through the Internet The Internet can be seen as a new space for communication that can easily be used by ethnic minorities. One such use is illustrated by the ORF’s multilingual