Diasporic and Local Mainstream Media as a Tool for Intercultural Integration? The Case of Latin American Communities in Italy

In Italy, communication research on the impact of media on immigrants’ integration dynamics has up until now privileged the sphere of national mainstream media. This paper takes into consideration the role of diasporic media as complimentary to perspective, by exploring the disposition of the two media fields towards the promotion of intercultural dialogue. In an attempt to assess whether there is in fact an intercultural media integration process occurring in both mainstream and Latin-America diasporic media players in Italy, this paper focuses on gathering evidence from the media pertaining to the society in general and from those created by and for immigrant communities. This evaluation aims to establish the degree to which majority and minorities take an interest in each other as well as the story telling they deploy or one another. Interculturalism and intercultural media integration are the main theoretical frameworks used to understand how intercultural dialogue is operationalized at the media level. Preliminary findings suggest a local mainstream media scene out of step with the de facto multicultural society, whereas only in some cases do Latin-American diasporic media demonstrate integrative potential capable of” bridging the gap” with the host society rather than merely fulfilling its ingroup “bonding” role

Between an Acknowledgment of Immigration and Neglect? Assessing Interculturalism and Media Integration in Luxembourg

peer reviewedLuxembourg is a de facto multicultural country, with 179 different nationalities represented. It is, however, complex to identify who among the latter is perceived as an immigrant by public opinion. In the same vein, immigration stories rarely make the headlines of some of the most prominent outlets of Luxembourg’s mainstream media. This study covers the print content of some of Luxembourg’s dominant media outlets in the search for the representation of (im)migrants and refugees. It thus takes a perspective whereby media act as a vehicle for a quintessential aspect of interculturalism, that of local meaningful interaction. Its overarching question regards the role that both local mainstream and minority media sectors can play in promoting integration through intercultural dialogue. It is hereby argued that immigrants are foremost represented and given a voice in media outlets created for the immigrant and cross-border communities as well as in mainstream media with more local (Tageblatt) and independent political views (D’Lëtzebuerger Land). In stronghold media such as RTL Lëtzebuerg and Luxemburger Wort, immigrants are, instead, scarcely represented

LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS OF A MODERN CITY. BOURGEOIS MIDDLE-CLASSES IN ESCH-SUR-ALZETTE (1842-1922)

The middle classes have had more internal clashes than external. A plethora of intermediary categories is necessary to understand this historical period. And these go beyond the “black and white”nobility/middle-class and the rest. Everywhere the slightest division of the intermediary layers could pave the way to new social discriminations. What did this vast middle-class have in common? Despite their differences, industrialists, merchants, rentiers, high school teachers, higher civil servants what united them? I contend that what united them was they all owned some form of asset and this was the one common denominator fundamentally setting them apart the working class. It is the fact that they owned assets, their land, their knowledge, their business, their prestige and social esteem that set them aside from those who owned nothing but the product that the work earned with their own hands could grant them. Was the working class, though the common opponent of the middle class? In Esch, I argue this was nuanced . what my research highlights best is how the Zeitgeist affecting the nation at large manifested in Esch-sur-Alzette. Through some examples, such as those of the fights of the local council and the creation of the Industrial school in particular, it becomes clear that part of the capital’s rulers had no interest in the social emancipation of the city. This reflects the views of the bourgeois elites of the capital, more interested in maintaining a status quo , occasionally only tending a hand to the requests of the country’s second city. Most times just accepting changes when they were inevitable. This is best highlighted by the liberal stances on the role of women as well as their initial resistance to the idea of a universal suffrage. The working class city identity concealed other differences. the same did the 1st World War and the ordeal of teaming up against the “common enemies”: the central government, the German occupier, but also communism . In the working class city, the role of both some the upper middle classes and lower middle classes overlap. This may appear paradoxical, as in Esch, they were enablers, not deterrents of a social levelling. THere can be no doubt however, to the fact that they never called for revolution either. It is the capital’s bourgeoisie (in both their governmental institutional and civic roles ) that emerge as deterrents to a social leveling (not particularly interested in universal suffrage, the emancipation of women nor in a better access of the working classes to a more advanced education path.) I also contend that different strategies were put into place namely that of languages acting as barrier and the transformation of foreigners as the more differentiated social group, that is the one, one should actually be setting apart from. both strategies having been, otherwise already argued by Denis Scuto in his history of Luxembourgish nationality. As much as class is my dominant lens, I cannot but acknowledge that other important forces were at play in the population’s identification /individual identities

Diasporic and Local Mainstream Media as a Tool for Intercultural Integration? The Case of Latin-American Communities in Italy

In Italy, communication research on the impact of media on immigrants’ integration dynamics has up until now privileged the sphere of national mainstream media. This paper takes into consideration the role of diasporic media as complimentary to perspective, by exploring the disposition of the two media fields towards the promotion of intercultural dialogue. In an attempt to assess whether there is in fact an intercultural media integration process occurring in both mainstream and Latin-America diasporic media players in Italy, this paper focuses on gathering evidence from the media pertaining to the society in general and from those created by and for immigrant communities. This evaluation aims to establish the degree to which majority and minorities take an interest in each other as well as the story telling they deploy or one another. Interculturalism and intercultural media integration are the main theoretical frameworks used to understand how intercultural dialogue is operationalized at the media level. Preliminary findings suggest a local mainstream media scene out of step with the de facto multicultural society, whereas only in some cases do Latin-American diasporic media demonstrate integrative potential capable of” bridging the gap” with the host society rather than merely fulfilling its ingroup “bonding” role