Contested language use in ethnic media: A case study of New Zealand’s Pacific media

Abstract

New Zealand’s Pacific communities face significant generational language loss and their media are increasingly produced in English, raising questions about the centrality of language for ethnic media and their audiences. By drawing on semi-structured interviews with 23 media producers, this study finds tensions within and between Pacific-language and English-language media over the use of Pacific languages. It suggests that language is a strategic resource of identity in Pacific media that is shaped by a dialectic of internal and external identification. Rather than viewing ethnic media language practices as simply about language preservation or translating information for migrants, this paper suggests we examine language as a way that media producers intentionally perform their identity and legitimate Pacific media production.