NaDiRa short study: Strategies of visibility

Project Team:

• Judith Purkarthofer
• Özge Zar
• Anne Mölders
• Esther Domke
• Geylan Ahmed Daud
• Nadia Bellardi

Results:

The research participants experience both explicit and subtle everyday racism, which manifests itself, for example, in well-meaning questions. Participants perceive their origin and appearance as the most present discrimination categories. Four mechanisms of exclusion are particularly relevant: Language, access, material and symbolic resources.

The research participants understand community media as part of global social movements. They experience it as a space where they can freely express themselves creatively and journalistically. At the same time, they perceive the free media as a bubble that functions differently from the majority society. For journalists, working in free media can be a bridge to becoming visible to mainstream media, for example through their own productions.

Surprising insights:

In order to counter everyday racism, individuals need to be empowered, for example through positive educational experiences, recognition of professional skills and securing residence permits. At the same time, a clear legal framework is needed that makes it possible to react quickly and as unbureaucratically as possible to attacks.

Networks and self-determined alliances strengthen media professionals who have experienced racism. Free spaces in which people can organise themselves in a self-determined way are necessary in all areas.

Significance for practice:

Recommendations for practice can be derived from our results:

1. There is a need for a qualified discussion of diversity in the German and European public sphere, enriched by media representation, humanistic education and opportunities for participation.
2. In institutions, awareness must be created of what support services are available and how they can be taken advantage of. Those affected by everyday racism must not be responsible for the fact that such offers exist.
3. Adequate funding and staffing for independent media is an important prerequisite for supporting media makers in the long term. Projects run on a voluntary basis are often very innovative - they need plannable support in order to survive in the long term.

Media reports and publications:

Community Media als Ort der Teilhabe. Special programme in the series "Our voice - The voice of the invisible", Radio Dreyeckland, 30.03.2021

Purkarthofer, J, N. Bellardi, E. Domke, Ö. Zar. 2022. "We Do Something because We Think that It Is Important for Society and that We Should Be Heard". Agency and Strategies of Empowerment of Community Media Producers in Germany in Light of Experiences of Racism. COMUNICAZIONI SOCIALI 2022/1, 47-60. doi: 10.26350/001200_000146

Short studies in preparation of the Racism Monitor:

In order to prepare a comprehensive racism monitor, DeZIM called on academics* from the DeZIM research community in 2020 to develop innovative study ideas. These should extend existing research projects, pursue new and innovative approaches or build an infrastructure to research racism. By 2021, more than 120 researchers at the six locations of the DeZIM research community had conducted a total of 34 short studies. These are divided into six thematic priorities:

• Health system
• Education system and labour market
• Institutional racism
• Dealing with experiences of racism
• Participation and the media
• Racist ideologies and attitudes