Page - 91 - in Media – Migration – Integration - European and North American Perspectives

Petra Herczeg | Migrants and Ethnic Minorities in Austria 91 site (volksgruppen.orf.at), which is linked with editorial staff in Vienna, Eisenstadt, and Klagenfurt. The homepage offers written news and downloads of several ethnic programmes and can be used by interested target groups as a news archive in the languages of the semi-autonomous minorities in Austria. The platform for minorities in Austria, “Initiative Minderheiten”, established “Radio Stimme” (“Radio Voice”), which is broadcast over independent stations in Vienna, Linz, Graz, Innsbruck and the southern areas of Carinthia. The one-hour programme, which is produced twice a month, aims to counteract any form of marginalisation on the basis of a person’s origin or political convictions. “Radio Stimme” attempts to develop counterstrategies for a media landscape which does not support minority issues and uses the Internet for newsletters and downloading radio programmes. It also provides its audience with podcasts of its programmes. A large-scale consensus asserts that variety is characteristic of our media- dominated society. Yet, the question of how different ethnic groups and their needs are to be covered in the media remains. Resolving this issue is a challenge to all of the relevant groups: journalists, politicians, academics, and the general public. Here, a single aspect is both the starting point and the major problem: developing an awareness of minorities and migrants, such that the majority does not judge them as a threat, but, instead, sees them as an opportunity for everyone concerned to experience plurality. Both scientific and journalistic efforts have a contribution to make here. To overcome segregation in the area of communication, a common European media policy is essential. Particularly in this context, integration can only be promoted if societal and democratic interests are accorded priority over economic interests. 5. Concluding Remarks A comparison between the situation of ethnic minorities and that of migrants indicates that both groups have similar problems in gaining the attention of the general public. The actual public perception of such groups is often solely related to negative contexts. The general public expects that ethnic groups exhibit behaviour in conformity with the mores of the society at large and that they do not dispute widely accepted norms. In general, the media most accessible to ethnic minorities and migrants are alternative and ethnic media. It is imperative that public policy establish conditions promoting the inte- gration of ethnic minorities and migrants into the public sphere, supporting