Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CIDoRa (Community, identity and diversity in German youth radio)
Reporting period: 2023-07-01 to 2025-06-30
Professional media function as information providers and public watchdog in society, and how they present diversity has implications for social cohesion and for how young people perceive identity and encounter difference. Youth radio stations, which have become multimedia outlets that are increasingly interactive and collaborative in the digital age, are an important point of orientation for many young people living in ethnically and linguistically diverse spaces. Even though German broadcasters have statutory and moral obligations to promote social cohesion and to contribute to building a non-discriminatory society in Germany, the media’s representations of ethnic diversity are under frequent criticism. Little is known, however, about what a meaningful engagement with diversity means for journalists and how they try to create social cohesion through their work behind the scenes of media content production. Through linguistic ethnography (including observation of journalistic work processes and conducting interviews with journalists) at one of the largest youth radio stations in Germany, CIDoRa provides new insights into the translingual and transmodal (linguistic and other semiotic) practices of media content production to explore how journalists construct and negotiate a collective urban youth identity with their diverse audience and thereby try to create a sense of community. In this context, CIDoRa sheds light on possible issues that can lead to an unbalanced and negative portrayal of ethnic and linguistic diversity on youth radio to a) advance knowledge across academic disciplines on the collaborative translingual and transmodal practices that underlie representations of ethnic diversity on youth radio and b) foster a more meaningful engagement of journalists with diversity. By developing approaches for diversity-oriented communication, CIDoRa responds to timely social concerns around difference and voice in a mobile world fraught with deepening division.
The fellow has conducted long-term ethnographic fieldwork at one of the largest youth radio stations in Germany to develop an understanding of translingual and transmodal journalistic practices of media content production for on-air and online communication (Instagram) and of the factors which can lead to a negative and unbalanced portrayal of ethnic diversity. For this, the fellow developed a new interdisciplinary methodological frame which combines theoretical approaches from sociolinguistics (including linguistic ethnography), media studies and cultural studies and thereby acknowledges how professional media language is situated in wider spatiotemporal contexts of social activities. In addition, the fellow undertook a multimodal critical discourse analysis and a linguistic corpus analysis of the station’s broadcasts and social media content. These analyses gave insights into journalists’ representations of ethnic diversity, youth identity and linguistic diversity in their messages as well as into how the target audience responds to these representations.
Concerning the dissemination of her findings, the fellow has so far published two journal articles and one blogpost. One journal article titled “Linguistic diversity in German youth media—The use of English in professionally produced Instagram memes and reels” is published in Languages (DOI:10.3390/languages10050096) and the second journal article titled “Media representations of ethnic diversity in times of ‘crisis’: Exploring factors shaping translingual and transmodal journalistic practices in German youth radio’s station image building” is published in Language and Intercultural Communication, (DOI: 10.1080/14708477.2025.2508888). The blogpost can be accessed at https://strictlylanguage.wordpress.com/2023/10/06/(opens in new window).
The fellow has so far presented at 9 international academic conferences and organised a one-day virtual conference at her host institution. The conference titled “Representations of Ethnic and Linguistic Diversity in the Media: New Approaches and Perspectives” took place on 9th May 2025. Hosted at the University of Limerick’s Centre for Applied Language Studies (CALS), the conference offered an opportunity for exchange and establishing new collaborations among scholars interested in the representations of diversity in media content. The event featured a keynote by a leading researcher in media linguistics and 10 presentations by international contributors (advanced and early-career academics). In addition, the fellow gave a presentation on the results of the CIDoRa project at this event.
Concerning the dissemination of her findings, the fellow has so far published two journal articles and one blogpost. One journal article titled “Linguistic diversity in German youth media—The use of English in professionally produced Instagram memes and reels” is published in Languages (DOI:10.3390/languages10050096) and the second journal article titled “Media representations of ethnic diversity in times of ‘crisis’: Exploring factors shaping translingual and transmodal journalistic practices in German youth radio’s station image building” is published in Language and Intercultural Communication, (DOI: 10.1080/14708477.2025.2508888). The blogpost can be accessed at https://strictlylanguage.wordpress.com/2023/10/06/(opens in new window).
The fellow has so far presented at 9 international academic conferences and organised a one-day virtual conference at her host institution. The conference titled “Representations of Ethnic and Linguistic Diversity in the Media: New Approaches and Perspectives” took place on 9th May 2025. Hosted at the University of Limerick’s Centre for Applied Language Studies (CALS), the conference offered an opportunity for exchange and establishing new collaborations among scholars interested in the representations of diversity in media content. The event featured a keynote by a leading researcher in media linguistics and 10 presentations by international contributors (advanced and early-career academics). In addition, the fellow gave a presentation on the results of the CIDoRa project at this event.
In response to the complexities of our globalised world, the past decade has seen the emergence of a new paradigmatic perspective on language in sociolinguistics that does not view language as a number of relatively stable systems of grammar and vocabulary that can be named (English, German, etc.). This paradigmatic perspective proposes a spatial orientation to language practices, which means that language practices (e.g. during media content production) are spatiotemporally entangled with semiotic and material resources and social activities. CIDoRa has advanced this agenda by combining theoretical approaches from sociolinguistics (including linguistic ethnography), media studies and cultural studies to develop an innovative methodological frame that acknowledges how professionally produced media messages are situated in wider spatiotemporal contexts of social activities (e.g. consumer/popular culture, routine practices of journalists, youth cultural practices, public discourses on diversity).
Rather than merely looking at media texts to analyse how ethnic diversity is presented by the media, which was mainly the approach of previous studies in this area, CIDoRa gave unprecedented insights into the often overlooked translingual and transmodal social practices of journalists and their entanglement in sociocultural contexts. A view behind the scenes from the perspective of journalists has revealed that addressing ethnic communities and minorities and framing ethnic and linguistic diversity appears as difficult to most journalists. The main challenges for journalists are how to portray ethnic diversity without producing ethnocentric perspectives, exoticizing the other, or particularly addressing or focusing on one community and thereby excluding other communities. Journalists’ perceptions regarding addressing ethnic communities and minorities and framing ethnic and linguistic diversity are subject to a range of factors shaping content production at the youth radio station, which include the imagined and actual audience, the materiality of the newsroom (e.g. resources available), ethical challenges, the constraints of the medium radio in its function to reach the masses, the media organisation, popular culture and consumerism, and competition in the German media system leading to market segmentation. Another larger issue is that German radio stations are subject to their remits and are expected to serve the democratic needs of a society traversed with widespread discourses on cultural pluralism and national identity. In this context and against the background of a spatial orientation to language, the findings of the CIDoRa project indicate that a move towards a more globally minded journalism as part of this larger system will need to also be part of a larger move towards a more globally minded society in which diversity is regarded as unremarkable.
Rather than merely looking at media texts to analyse how ethnic diversity is presented by the media, which was mainly the approach of previous studies in this area, CIDoRa gave unprecedented insights into the often overlooked translingual and transmodal social practices of journalists and their entanglement in sociocultural contexts. A view behind the scenes from the perspective of journalists has revealed that addressing ethnic communities and minorities and framing ethnic and linguistic diversity appears as difficult to most journalists. The main challenges for journalists are how to portray ethnic diversity without producing ethnocentric perspectives, exoticizing the other, or particularly addressing or focusing on one community and thereby excluding other communities. Journalists’ perceptions regarding addressing ethnic communities and minorities and framing ethnic and linguistic diversity are subject to a range of factors shaping content production at the youth radio station, which include the imagined and actual audience, the materiality of the newsroom (e.g. resources available), ethical challenges, the constraints of the medium radio in its function to reach the masses, the media organisation, popular culture and consumerism, and competition in the German media system leading to market segmentation. Another larger issue is that German radio stations are subject to their remits and are expected to serve the democratic needs of a society traversed with widespread discourses on cultural pluralism and national identity. In this context and against the background of a spatial orientation to language, the findings of the CIDoRa project indicate that a move towards a more globally minded journalism as part of this larger system will need to also be part of a larger move towards a more globally minded society in which diversity is regarded as unremarkable.