The Fight Of A Minority Language Against The Force of Globalisation

The Fight of a Minority Language Against the Force of

Globalisation: The Case of Catalan on the Internet

Josep Lluís Micó and Pere MasipInformation Society &

MulticulturalismProfessor Han Woo Park

Presented byAzman Bidin2009.10.29

Catalan?

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1. Introduction2. Language and Society

3. Media System4. On the Internet

5. Successful Examples

6. Conclusion

1. Introduction

Transformation in spatial and temporal relationships, social practices, and forms of representation – Globalisation.

“..the age of globalisation is also the age of identity..” Manuel Castells. Communities are distinguished by “them” and “us”.

The internet society is able to replace territory and hierarchy with “will and action” for cultural and linguistic construction.

1. Introduction

Strong Cultural or Linguistic communities:

Minority Linguistic communities (often seen as)

Broad social basisMedia and State support

Inconvenience Not Asset or Variety

Internet advantage: participation of social agents and people but not the media groups or large economy investments. Tool for democratisation.

1. Introduction

Chapter Objective: to highlight the opportunities provided by the internet do develop and promote minority languages and cultural identities.

The progress of a language is linked to the use of technology by its speakers (Crystal 2000), the internet can be an important tool to promote or revitalise a language.

1. Introduction

Catalan: means of communication and also symbol of identity shared official language status with Spanish.

Francisco Franco Bahamonde (1892-1975) persecution of the language. Catalan was repeatedly forbidden throughout Spanish history.

Still considered as nuisance or an anomaly instead of social richness.

Over 7 Million speakers (more than Greek, Portuguese or Finnish).

2005 given internet domain name “.cat”

2. Language and Society (Spain)

From wikipedia

Co-official: Basque 2%Catalan 17%Galician 7%Aragonese

Recognised Asturian

Unofficial: Others

2. Language and Society “Catalan Lands”Area (km sq)

People City Country

Catalonia 31,895 6,995,206

Barcelona Spain

Community of Valencia

23,255 4,692,449

Valencia Spain

Balearic Islands

4,992 983,131 Palma de Mallorca

Spain

Franja de Ponent

1,812 42,000 Fraga Spain

Northern Catalonia

4,116 364,000 Perpinya France

L’Alguer 224 41,000 L’Alguer Italy

Andorra 465 52,000 Andorra la Vella

Andorra

Total 66,462 13,169,786

South Korea*

100,032 48,379,392

Seoul South Korea

Source: Internationalizing Internet Studies 2009 Pg 115* For comparison purpose, From wikipedia

2. Language and Society

• Delicate Situation- Non Official Status in countries with

powerful official languages such as Spanish and French

- Ubiquitous presence of English- Immigration

• Immigration can also be seen as a good opportunity for survival as means of integration

3. Media SystemCultural Identities 1950’s – National

Communications Systems.

Catalan Media Market – Average by EU Standard.Catalan administration has limited power due to

central Spanish and EU institutions.

1978 restoration of democracy, strategic importance of mass media was not realised.

Media Industry is not strong enough to compete with Spanish and international media groups.

3. Media System

Newspaper: 3/8 (El Punt, Avui and El Periódico de Catalunya). Only 25.8% (2003)

Television: 2/7 (TV3 and Canal 33) Free and Financed by Catalan government. TV2 Second national channel only 9.8%. In 2007 to reduce budget deficit – only 30mins per day. Cable/satellite virtually zero Catalan program

3. Media System

Radio: Linguistic stardardisation 50.5% (increased 19.8 since the last 5 years). Catalunya Radio competes with Spanish commercial stations. Rac1 is a new radio in Catalan.

Cinema: 2006 about 46/467 were in Catalan including dubbed and subtitled. 30/56 in Catalan produced in Catalonia. The rest of Catalan Lands virtually zero**

4. Catalan on The Internet

Vitality indicator: conditioned by levels of economic and social development rather than demography.

Suitable platform for consolidation and promotion – overcome economic and political problem in real world

No single organisation defending the language. Reaching out to the “Catalan Lands” is unlawful – Broadcast license condition

4. Catalan on The Internet

Popular and originated in civil society social movements through series of initiatives appeared in cyberspace to defend and promote the language and culture.

Overcome incompetent governing class, political controversies and economic pressure.

Spread of feeling of identification: geographically, historically and linguistic Catalan Community

7 million websites in Catalan (Softcatala 2005). 26th most used language on the internet ahead of Greek, Arabic and Indonesia

Rate websites per speaker: Catalan 1.09, Spanish 0.41, Russian 0.26, Portuguese 0.25 and Chinese 0.08

Alexa Review …

4. Catalan on The InternetPercentage Use of the

InternetShare Strong Catalan

Identity (38.4% of population)

Does not Share Strong Catalan Identity (33.4%)

Professional Purpose 21.9 17.2

Practical Use 29.6 23

Online Purchase 12.1 9.4

Education 21.3 17.2

Political/Union 4.8 2.6

Leisure 30.3 27.1

News 14.9 13.4

Technological 11.8 11.1

Social Purpose 20.6 21.8Catalan Society Report by Manuel Castells and Imma Tubella

Among Internet users with a marked Catalan identity, majority are young people. Those who do not use the Internet are mainly Spanish speakers

Highest rate of internet use also highest ratio to website production: Icelandic, EstonianNorwegian, Swedish, Finnish and Danish. All with states except Catalan

4. Catalan on The Internet

Catalan web presence is erratic (WICCAC;www.wiccac.org)– Universities 95.24%– Theaters and Dance Companies 91.23%– Search Engines 80.95%– Car Industry 2.9%– Large companies and multinationals

19.44%– Transportation 23.33%– Spanish Gov and EU 27.08%– Temporary work agencies 34.78%– Telecommunications, electronics, mobile

telephony and technology 39.47%

4. Catalan on The Internet

All universities in Catalan Lands have their websites in Catalan except University of Perpignan

Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) founded in 1994; educational project conceived in Catalan been exported worldwide.- The only all-inclusive university in Spain that is not attendance-based.- Valuable element for normalisation and spreading of Catalan- Now with over 20,000 students, it’s open nature has led to offer courses in Spanish to the rest of Spain and Latin America. Also projects in English, Chinese and Arabic

5. Successful Examples

Catalan Initiatives on the Internet can be associated with Protest due to persecution and contempt treatment. Unlike Spanish as it culture and language are in a secure position.

Conventional Media needs huge financial investment, licensing issues from the administrators.

The Internet needs less investment and independence of political power. Overcome the limitation imposed by law and available everywhere.

5. Successful Examples

Collaboration: www.plataforma-llengu.org : Guiding people

who wish to avoid consuming trademark products that are not labeled in Catalan.

www.softcatala.org : students, programming engineers, philologists, designers and translators non-profit & cooperative spirit. Started in 1997. Full computing experience in computing. Responsible for translation of software as Open Office, Mozilla and Google.

5. Successful Examples

Publication:El Temps (written in Catalan) digital publication in

1994 through Servicom then the internet. Then a year later the top three followed www.lavanguardia.es, www.elperiodico.es, www.avui.cat

Vilaweb (www.vilaweb.cat) founded by Vicent Partal the first completely electronic medium in 1996. Worked in El Temps in 1995 created Infopista a directory which eventually led to the born of Vilaweb.

863,796 monthly visitors; at municipal, neighbourhood or international level. Australia Vilaweb and New York Vilaweb

5. Successful Examples

Publication:1999 LaMalla (www.lamalla.net). Focused on

local news and multimedia contents and promoting active audience. Initiated by journalists Toni Esteve and Oriol Ferran had to convince Diputacio de Barcelona. Won Net Media Award.

Catalan Broadcasting Corporation. News www.telenoticies.cat Sports www.elsesports.cat children www.clubsupertres.cat and Leisure www.3xl.cat

5. Successful Examples

MobilisationThe main obstacles from big transnational

companies and Spanish Government despite of economic presence. Ikea, Metro and Carrefour ended up “Catalanizing” their websites due to popular protest campaigns via emails.

Internet, emails and mobile phones played central roles in campaign initiatives i.e. participation in Iraq war after news manipulation by the central government Madrid attact March 11 2004.

5. Successful Examples

Mobilisation1996 Prof Amadeu Abril from University Ramon

Llull attempt to obtain “.ct” was rejected since Catalonia is not an independent state.

March 2004 PuntCat Association (founded in 2001) requested ICANN for “.cat” as a sponsored domain. Based on language not territory. Supported by 68,000 individuals messages.

Sept 15, 2005 succeeded to get “.cat” as TLD. First time TLD granted for specific language and culture.

April 23, 2006 the domain registry was open for individuals. More than 10,000 requests to register in April 2006.

6. ConclusionSmall part of the activity and research that is being

carried out in Catalonia is now Visible. Not published in English made these activity and research ‘invisible’ but they are not lacking in quality.

The opportunities provided by the Internet to develop and promote minority languages and cultural identities got Highlighted. Globalisation can make local realities to be stronger if the opportunities available are well manipulated.

The Internet offers previously unimaginable possibilitiesThe youngsters are the most active group on the internet

in defending the language and culture in the case of Catalan thus guarantee the strategy for the defense of the language and culture in cyberspace will continue

Thank You

Gràcies

Terima kasih

감사합니다Gracias

谢谢你