Authors

• Vincze, Laszlo (University of Helsinki. Department of Social Research)

Keywords

identity, languages, minority languages, television, television viewing

Abstract

The survey was conducted to study the identity and television viewing among young people in three separate language minorities in Italy, Romania and Finland. The language minorities included German-speaking people in Italy, Hungarian speakers in Romania, and Swedish speakers in Finland. The questions were about both the minority language and the majority language.

The respondents were first asked which language(s) they used at home, with friends and in daily life. They were also asked how many of their friends were minority language speakers and majority language speakers. Regarding television watching, the respondents were asked the language in which they watched TV, which language subtitles they used when watching foreign films, how often they watched TV channels in the minority and majority languages, how much they watched TV in general, and what their reasons for watching TV in the minority or majority language were.

Concerning language identity, several of statements were presented charting, for instance, the respondents' views of the majority language speakers, the status of their language minority, the relationship between the minority and majority language groups, and the importance of language as part of their identity.

Finally, the respondents were asked about their views of the minority and majority language groups in more detail. Topics charted included the use of the minority and majority languages in the public sector of the region, public opinion of the minority and majority groups, political power of the minority and majority language groups, and representation of the minority and majority languages in the media of the region.

Background variables included the respondent's gender and geographical variables (e.g. country and region of residence) as well as parents' mother tongue and education.