Minoritetsmedier och minoritetsmediepolitik i Sverige - Myndigheten ...

majority and minority media constitutes a basic precondition for a multiethnic
society. Such interplay between both kinds of media would be possible in a multiethnic
public sphere, which he defines as a public sphere that reflects the prevailing
ethnic diversity and promotes expression of ethnic identity on the part of both the
majority and minority groups. But realizing this vision requires that the state,
through its policies and actions, provide an infrastructure in the form of resources
and institutions. In light of this, we may say that the state’s actions constitute a
measure of its readiness and ability to take public responsibility for managing
ethnic diversity in the area of media. It is therefore of great importance to study
state policies in this area.
Working methods
Work with the study report mainly involved literature searches, literature studies,
contacts with authorities as well as synthesis and analysis of the minority media
mapping. In addition to the research literature, I also studied a number of official
reports and documents.
The inventory of minority media was almost entirely based on self-reported
information, that is, information provided by contact people at the various media.
Given the project’s extent (over 370 media in approx. 40 languages have been
mapped) and the temporal and material conditions under which it was conducted,
it is obvious that there has been little possibility to verify all the self-reported information.
The study is comprehensive in scope, but general in nature. The existing,
active minority media have been mapped by collecting general information on
these media by means of telephone interviews and e-mail/postal questionnaires.
The inventory is roughly analyzed in this volume and presented as a catalogue
in a twin-volume to this study.
The multiethnic Sweden
The multiethnic composition of the Swedish population may be described in
various ways. One way is to count all residents who were born abroad. At the end
of 2002, this number amounted to 1.05 million (or 11.8 percent of the total population).
Another way is to calculate the proportion of the population with a socalled
foreign background. In a publication from 2002, Statistics Sweden (SCB)
noted that this concept was ambiguous and that it had been used in different senses
by different authorities responsible for statistics; this led to a situation in which the
statistics produced by different authorities became difficult to understand and use.
SCB therefore recommended that, when reporting statistics, the category of persons
with a foreign background include individuals born abroad as well as those
born in Sweden to two foreign-born parents, and that the category of persons with
a Swedish background include individuals born in Sweden to either two Swedishborn
parents or one Swedish-born and one foreign-born parent. Further, SCB
noted that the concept of persons with a foreign background is defined more broad-
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