Immigration, Economic Crisis, and Radio Discourse: Breeding Ground for an Excluding Kind of Language

Abstract

The media play a pivotal role in shaping a society’s view of migration processes and of the ethnic minorities brought about by such processes. By analyzing a series of broadcasts by (Catalan radio networks) Catalunya Ràdio and RAC1, and by (Spainwide radio network) COPE, the study we introduce here purported to determine whether radio broadcast discourse in Catalonia is engendering an inclusive type of language that contributes to social unity or whether it is overstating conflict and thus helping to spread xenophobia instead. In times of economic crisis, instances of excluding language seem to gain currency and grow more widespread throughout the media. Our analysis shows how both the concepts and the discourse strategies used in these broadcasts refer us in part to hate speech and to a modern type of racism more generally, as they are rife with inaccuracies about certain groups, deny minorities of proper visibility, erase their internal differences by unduly homogenizing them, and overstress ethnic opposition by emphasizing the us vs. them antagonism and by using conflictbased approaches to deal with these topics.