The New Audiovisual Paradigm and Non-Hegemonic Languages

The Covid19 pandemic has exacerbated the dramatic rise, in the past years, in the consumption of digital contents in Europe, be it new media, video games or streaming platforms. This trend leads us to ask which effects it has had on non-hegemonic languages: what kind of audiovisual offer has there been for non-hegemonic languages speakers? Has consumption increased for contents in those languages as well?

Contents in minority languages have to look for their place if they do not want to be side-lined in a “sea” of hegemonic languages. Since they are usually not used in mainstream productions, one does not easily find the shows or films produced in those languages and has even more difficulty finding contents that have been dubbed into these languages. This is the case at least on the most popular distribution platforms.

For those who want to consume and produce contents in non-hegemonic languages, the communications system, and especially the audiovisual one, has an important role to play in the short term. Content producers, those responsible for audiovisual media, platform owners, linguistic planners, civil society organisations and governments have the responsibility of facilitating the production of audiovisual content for those populations. The need for efficient telecommunications infrastructures to provide quality services to customers, such as optic fiber networks, is also strong.

In order to move forward in the direction of more linguistic diversity, powerful political and legislative decisions are needed. If Catalans, Galicians or Welsh want to have a suitable audiovisual offer in their languages in the new paradigm we are experiencing, elected officials have to make effective decisions in this direction, which might lead them to ask the deeper question of: what kind of audiovisual mass media is needed in stateless nations?

This book tackles all of these topics, with the aim of raising awareness about the cultural and linguistic effects that new modes of consumption of audiovisual products have on supply and demand in non-hegemonic languages. The publication also sheds light on the situations of various European languages in this context. This work stems from discussions having taken place during Ezkerraberri Fundazioa’s, ehuGune’s and the Coppieters Foundation’s conference “Audiovisual Media and Non-Hegemonic Languages. Challenges of the Future”.