Today’s European countries are countries of immigration (and emigration). Mainstream news media systematically speak about immigrants, but rarely with them and often in a negative manner. Especially newcomers are underrepresented as sources and are not given a voice. Immigrants and their descendants are increasingly claiming the right to participate in the public sphere by producing their own media. The challenge, however, for today’s marginalized communities is not necessarily being denied a voice in the wider public sphere but rather an audience that listens.
The purpose of the proposed research project is to gather knowledge about the role migrant media play as agents in local, national, and transnational (Baltic Sea region) media landscapes. We explore the societal conditions in which migrants get their voices heard outside their own community.
Our theoretical point of departure is the concept of post-migrant societies, that observes society through the lenses of migration, of how living together on the basis of recognition, equal opportunities, and participation is possible. By doing interviews with media producers and doing analysis of media productions and reception, we focus on migrant media productions (journals, radio stations, tv, web pages, vlogs) that are produced by migrants themselves and address a wider local and national audience in Sweden, Germany and Estonia as well as in the transnational field of the Baltic Sea area.