Abstract

As a field in its own right, Minority Language Media studies is developing fast. The recent technological and social developments that have accelerated media convergence and opened new ways of access and exchange into spaces formerly controlled by media institutions, offer new opportunities, challenges and dangers to minority languages, and especially to their already established media institutions. This book includes debates on what convergence and participation actually mean, a series of case studies of specific social media developments in minority language, as well as comparative studies on how the cultural industries have engaged with the new possibilities brought about by media convergence. Finally, the book also offers a historical review of the development of Minority Language Media worldwide, and evidences the areas in which more extensive research is required.

The importance of the internet in efforts to promote minority languages is often asserted but still too poorly understood. This excellent collection is a major step in addressing this gap. Providing a rich mix of theoretical material and finely-grained case studies, it deepens our understanding of the complex relationship between social media – and other media – and policy and planning for minority languages.

Elin Haf Gruffydd Jones is Senior Lecturer in Media and Creative Industries and Director of the Mercator Institute for Media, Languages and Culture at the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies at Aberystwyth University. She has been working in the field of Minority Language Media Studies for over twenty years and has published widely on matters of language and media.

Enrique Uribe-Jongbloed is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Communication at Universidad de La Sabana, and the director of the Audiovisual Culture research group. He has been involved in various Minority Language Media studies endeavours since he joined the Mercator Media Network in 2007.

This collection is explicative and multilayered...and will appeal beyond MLM studies to linguistic disciplines, although an appreciation of the situation of minority languages is presupposed in the range of studies presented. Insightful and accessible, it will interest established and emerging minoritylanguage researchers and activists who are concerned with the complex relationship between language and the new media environment.

The book will be very useful to applied linguists and sociolinguists, students and scholars alike, interested in the role of today’s multilingual, multi-platform media in minority and Indigenous language communities; to media specialists in academia and in the media industry; and to anyone interested in examining the role of digital age media in maintaining language diversity.