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The Media of Diaspora Research Group-MDRG hosts an international conference on Digital participation among Ethnic minorities: Policy, Access and Engagement
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Submitted by Selbin Kabote on Wed, 21/09/2011 - 9:21am
The conference focused on the rapidly increasing impact of social media, which is coinciding with a massive demographic shift in developed nations as ethnic diversity leaps upward. Aspects include the diversity of groups represented in a given context and, the degree of institutionalized accommodation accorded minorities formerly routinely marginalized by states and civil societies.
In an interview, one of the speakers at the conference, Professor Ralph M. Negrine of Sheffield University, said the study of how groups of displaced people - whether forcibly displaced or displaced because of economic or social reasons - and digital media is increasingly important because it alerts us to how these people construct or reconstruct identities for themselves.
“By looking at their on-line presence, we come to understand how they wish to be seen and the range of practices that they use to define themselves”, Prof. Negrine said.
Prof. Negrine who presented a paper entitled “Discovering roots and constructing identities via social media”, said the online presence of groups of displaced people is how they wish the world to see them and how they wish to see themselves as well.
Presenting a paper entitled “The positioning of Russian-language Journalistic websites in Germany towards integration in Germany and ethnic loyalties”, Dr Daniel Muller of TU Dortmund University, described the ideal type of ethnic minority media as the media that is
produced by ethnic minority members in the host country, for example West Africans in the UK; Turks in Germany; Arabs in France.
Dr Daniel Muller said the media shows content “at least far above average” relating to ethnic minority members in the host country. He said the ideal ethnic minority media is controlled by ethnic minority interests, and not by foreign states or by host country institutions. “Ideal types may be rare in practice, where "hybrids" dominate, but for clarification and understanding they are useful”, Dr Muller said. The academic said Max Weber, one of the founding fathers of sociology, coined the term "Idealtypen" (ideal types) meaning strong prototypes of certain tendencies.
On the issue of the presence of a new black African Diaspora in Germany, Dr Muller said
the background to this new Diaspora stems from Germany’s involvement in the colonisation of African countries - Togo, parts of present-day Cameroon, Tanzania minus Zanzibar, Tanganyika, Namibia etc.
There was also the post-independence Africa flow of migrants, many of whom were diplomats, students, asylum seekers and other migrants. Dr Muller said although it is difficult to estimate, the total number of this new black Africa Diaspora in Germany is about 200,000 to 400,000 today.
“Most pretty new, speak English & French as well as their respective vernacular languages, be it Bamiléké or Wolof or Twi, but some speak only German, especially those from mixed marriages inter-African or with other foreigners or and with Germans as well” Dr Muller said.
A PhD candidate at the University of Adelaide in Australia, Ekaterina Loy said in her opinion new media plays several important roles in the lives of migrant youths in Australia. He said the media connects the young people to their peers both in their country of origin and the country of residence. The researcher said in this respect, the new media hence connects them to their heritage, helping them to negotiate their position in the new country of residence. Ekaterina Loy is also the programme coordinator of the multicultural youth programme at Radio Adelaide.
The Media of Diaspora Research Group was established in 2009 in the Lincoln School of Journalism, University of Lincoln, in response to the gap in journalism literature at two levels. First, the exploration of journalism theories in most journalism textbooks is not informed by empirical data from the media of Diaspora. Second, the study of ethnic minorities is predominantly focused on their marginalisation in the mainstream media and less on the articulation and appropriation of media by the ethnic groups to project black perspectives on public issues.
The MDRG conference was jointly hosted by the Media of Diaspora Research Group, Faculty 15 of TU Dortmund University, the Institute of Journalism at TU Dortmund University and the Erich Brost Institute for International Journalism (EBI), an affiliate of TU Dortmund University.
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