Areas with High-Density Basque-Speaking Communities

The first Management Committee (MC) meeting of the PLURILINGMEDIA Action (CA23105) was held on October 2, 2024, at the COST Association headquarters in Brussels. This gathering marks a key moment in the initiative’s journey to protect and promote linguistic plurality in Europe’s rapidly changing media landscape. Spearheaded by the ECMI, the Action seeks to tackle the challenges posed by digitalisation and the dominance of larger languages in the media, and to support the use of regional and minority languages.

This year’s event, titled ‘Sustainable Development of High Vitality Areas for Minority Language’, focused on regions with a high concentration of minority language speakers and how they can serve as examples for both linguistic and territorial development. 
Maddi provided a theoretical framework for understanding these particular sociolinguistic areas. She drew on examples from various minority language contexts to illustrate the key characteristics, significance, and challenges of these settings.

From February 16-23, our colleague Maddi Dorronsoro Olamusu was on a research visit in Wales. The Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies at the University of Wales invited Maddi as part of their research and policy work focussing on the contemporary social use of the Welsh language. Elin Haf Gruffydd Jones, Director of the Centre, organised an eventful schedule crossing Wales from South to North and introduced her to various actors working on the Welsh language, such as governmental institutions, NGOs, researchers, teachers and community members.

From December 2nd to 5th, 2024, Villa Vigoni, located on the scenic Lake Como, hosted the conference “The Digital Transition for Minority Language Media in Italy and Germany: A Knowledge Exchange with European Partners”. Co-organized by the European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI) and Eurac Research, this event brought together researchers, practitioners, and media experts to discuss the challenges and opportunities of digitalization for minority language media (MLM).

Our colleague Maddi Dorronsoro Olamusu was recently interviewed by Segura Irratia, a local Basque radio station primarily broadcasting in the province of Gipuzkoa and surrounding areas, with online accessibility as well. Their programme ‘Bixi bixi’ discusses various topics related to the Basque language and the interview with Maddi was aired on 13 November. The radio host asked about the ECMI and the reception of her project on Basque at the centre, the presence of Basque in the minority language scene, and different aspects of her research project. As the interview was conducted in Basque, we have provided a summary in English.  

The ECMI, in partnership with the Baltic Centre for Media Excellence, recently hosted a two-day workshop in Riga focused on the topic of minority-language media in kin-state minority situations.

We are pleased to announce that Craig Willis recently attended the 3rd biennial conference of the International Association for Minority Language Media Research (IAMLMR), which took place at North-West University in Mahikeng, South Africa, on 9 and 10 July.

The ECMI is proud to announce its success in securing the highly competitive COST Action funding for the initiative titled “Language Plurality in Europe’s Changing Media Sphere” (PLURILINGMEDIA) (CA23105). This victory comes with the ECMI as the main proposer, leading an impressive consortium of researchers and practitioners.

The Centre for Catalan Studies at Queen Mary University of London hosted a one-day conference on Wednesday, 13th September. Among the presenters was ECMI Researcher Craig Willis, who delivered a comprehensive quantitative analysis of official TikTok channels belonging to television, radio, and print media outlets in Catalonia.

From December 2nd to 5th, 2024, Villa Vigoni, located on the scenic Lake Como, hosted the conference “The Digital Transition for Minority Language Media in Italy and Germany: A Knowledge Exchange with European Partners”. Co-organized by the European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI) and Eurac Research, this event brought together researchers, practitioners, and media experts to discuss the challenges and opportunities of digitalization for minority language media (MLM).