The study “How do Nonspeakers View Minority Language Media? A Comparison of Basque, Catalan, Galician, Scottish Gaelic, and Welsh Public Broadcasters” by Craig Willis from the European Centre for Minority Issues looked at an apparently unresearched question in the field of minority language media: how do nonspeakers view such media.
The focus here is on television media because of its accessibility to nonspeakers in Spain and UK, and the languages in question are Catalan, Basque, Galician, Welsh,
and Scottish Gaelic. They were chosen because they were among the prominent minority languages in Europe.
The article used both quantitative and qualitative data. The quantitative data came from viewing figures surveys, and the qualitative from expert
interviews with practitioners and scholars. The interviews were conducted in-person or online and were from 60 to 90 minutes long.
Catalan media was watched by the nonspeakers mainly for sport. Children’s content was also popular, many interviewees mentioned Dragon Ball by Akira Toriyama as content important for speakers and nonspeakers alike. The scholars expressed dismay that recently the situation had reversed and people were not watching the cartoons in Catalan.
Basque was similar to Catalan in that interviewees mentioned again sport and children’s content as attracting nonspeakers, again mentioning Dragon Ball. Again, 1980s and 1990s were in a sense a golden age, when nonspeakers consumed this media but nowadays much is dubbed in Spanish and from global channels.
Galician, again, showed that sport was the most watched genre by nonspeakers. Some Galician terminology such as ‘adestrador’ for football coach have even seeped into everyday language of Spanish (Castilian) speakers. Children’s shows, such as Xabarín Club were frequently mentioned, and even some entertainment programs, Luar and Land Rober were often mentioned.
When it comes to Welsh, about one third of the audience comprised non-Welsh speakers. Sport, again, was popular, as was the soap opera Pobol y Cwm, which was discussed by the interviewees as having prompted English conversations about it. Youth content such as the online-only Hansh. In YouTube, about half of the comments on Hansh are in English, suggesting English viewership.
Scottish Gaelic was also represented by the state in the form of BBC Alba. For most people, the exposure to Scottish Gaelic came in the form of television programmes. The viewing numbers far exceed the number of Gaelic speakers. Sport, factual, and music were prioritized by non-speakers. Children’s shows were not now central, except for the Gaelic Peppa Pig, which was, according to an interviewee, the only version available on the BBC iPlayer.
The quantitative data suggest that for Welsh and Scottish Gaelic, nonspeakers are a significant part of the audience, but this was not so evident for Catalan, Basque, and Galician. The minority television appears to have been the most popular in 1990s/2000s when there was less competition from the majority language.
Sports was almost always the most popular genre, but in addition to that, there were differences. Exclusive dubbing rights for children’s shows like Dragon Ball had a significant impact, but this seems to have shifted in time to English.
Unique content appears to be a common denominator: if the minority language channel can offer something that others cannot, then it will become popular across linguistic boundaries. Despite the loss of watchers recently, the findings suggest that if exclusivity can be restored, so can the viewers.
The article “How do Nonspeakers View Minority Language Media? A Comparison of Basque, Catalan, Galician, Scottish Gaelic, and Welsh Public Broadcasters” by Craig Willis is in the International Journal of Communication. (open access via pdf).
Picture: San Juan de Gaztelugatxe, Basque Country by Des Mc Carthy
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