Seite - 45 - in Media – Migration – Integration - European and North American Perspectives
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45
Heinz Bonfadelli
Media Use by Ethnic Minority Youth in Switzerland
1. Introduction
Migration is a well-known phenomenon all over the world. Although people
have always been moving, migration flows have reached a new quantitative and
qualitative dimension since the 19th and 20th centuries. Europe, above all
Western Europe, has become one of the targets of larger flows of immigration,
especially since World War II. In Switzerland, for example, every third resident
belongs to an ethnic minority or has an immigrant background, i.e. is a
descendant of at least one parent from a country other than Switzerland.
Migration developments and the resulting coexistence of different ethnic
groups involve conflicts like racism and inequalities on a structural as well as a
social level. Such conflicts in multicultural settings have triggered debates on
the integrative function that different spheres of society should fulfill.
The modern mass media play a far-reaching and complex role in today’s
multicultural society. They may be of relevance to the social integration of ethnic
minorities in that they are, for example, an important source of information
about politics, culture, and everyday life in society. Mass media can provide
day-to-day news and convey social norms and values, thus offering members
of ethnic minorities the opportunity to participate in the (national) society of
the host country by creating a common knowledge base and a basis for
interpersonal communication. But they can also contribute to segregation in
many ways, for instance, by stressing negative images and stereotypes of immigrant
groups (Schudson 1994; Cottle 2000). Young people, whether of migrant
background or not, use local and national, but also global media
representations and symbols of popular culture (Lull 2001) on an individual
level. They identify with or distinguish themselves from such representations
and symbols; or they use them to construct multifaceted forms of hybrid
identities actively and in creative ways (e.g. Barker 1997; Ogan 2001; Nilan/
Feixa 2006).
Communication research started taking more interest in the field of ethnic
minorities and mass media during the 1970s. Research issues are usually tackled
from different academic disciplines in an interdisciplinary setting. Depending
on the approach chosen, the studies investigate different aspects. One line of
research concentrates on media content (Poole 2000; Hafez 2000; Esser 2000; ter
Wal 2004; Müller 2005a; Nacos/Torres-Reyna 2007; Hafez/Richter 2007;
Media – Migration – Integration
European and North American Perspectives
- Titel
- Media – Migration – Integration
- Untertitel
- European and North American Perspectives
- Autoren
- Rainer Geissler
- Horst Pöttker
- Verlag
- transcript Verlag
- Datum
- 2009
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
- ISBN
- 978-3-8376-1032-1
- Abmessungen
- 15.0 x 22.4 cm
- Seiten
- 250
- Schlagwörter
- Integration, Media, Migration, Europe, North America, Sociology of Media, Sociology
- Kategorie
- Medien