Whose voices?
How media policy shapes minority
language radio in Taiwan
Ya-Chi Chen
2020
presented by Liyun Chen (5623A003)
Outline 1. Background
2. Development of Hakka
Language Media
3. Discussion: Media policy and
its impact on voice
4. Conclusion
Background
● ‘Minority language media’ or ‘ethnic media’ refer to
media produced for a particular linguistic or ethnic
community (Matsaganis et al., 2011).
● Taiwanese Hakka is the minority language in Taiwan
Taiwan Population Census (2020)
The Decline of Hakka Language in Taiwan
● Steady decline in relation to age and
language proficiency
● In 2001, dialects were officially
incorporated into the curriculum and
required for all elementary school students
● Survey shows that regions with a higher
density of Hakka people show better
language maintenance (HAC, 2011)
Taiwan Population Census (2020)
Hakka Language media in Taiwan
● Hakka radio stations: audio media in which Hakka is the major language used to communicate, and
Hakka people are the main audience served
● Hakka language programmes constitute a fairly small portion of the radio market in terms of time and
economic scale
Media Policy ● refers to the development of goals and
norms leading to the creation of
instruments that are designed to shape
the structure and behaviour of media
systems (Freedman, 2008).
● the formulation of media regulation
and policy plays a significant role in
shaping the media system. (Streeter,
1996; McChesney 1993)
Method
Hakka Language
● carried out in a historical approach
Media ● relies on policy documents issued by the
Development government and interview data with six Hakka
radio stations
○ first non-profit Hakka radio station
○ first commercial Hakka radio station
From being unheard to being involved ○ Four of the six stations are designated for
in protest activism retaining and promoting Hakka culture.
● During four decades of martial law, the
government suspended applications for
radio licenses
Hakka Language ● Radio and Television Act (1976)
Media ○ language ban on media content and
education
Development ○ ‘Mandarin Chinese shall be the main
language for radio broadcasting, and
the percentage of dialects used shall
be lowered year by year’
Authoritarian pre-1986: ● Similar restrictions were put on students in
Hakka is mostly unheard primary and secondary schools; slogans
such as ‘Please speak Mandarin Chinese, not
● The Kuomintang’s (Chinese Nationalist Party)
dialects’ appeared everywhere around
take over Taiwan in 1949 campuses
● Martial Law in Taiwan 1949-1987
Online National Museum of Taiwan History
● To counterbalance possible disruptive
programming from the mainland, the first
Hakka Language Hakka radio programme appeared in 1956
in Miaoli
Media
Development
Authoritarian pre-1986:
Hakka is mostly unheard
● Politics was the most prominent factor in
this period as the media were heavily
restricted
Hakka Language ● even the new Hakka programme was
started, it is not for serving the audience,
Media but for propaganda.
Development ● Mandarin Chinese encompassed the whole
society as the government was keen to
establish unity and legitimacy.
● It results in the language shift that younger
Authoritarian pre-1986:
generation lost the dialects the older
Hakka is mostly unheard generation speak.
● In the 1980s, Taiwan underwent waves of
Hakka Language social movements and political
Media democratization.
Development ● ‘Return My Mother Tongue (Hakka)’
movement in 1988.
● The incumbent government regarded
Hakka radio stations as tokens to
Newly democratized: demonstrate cultural and linguistic
Hakka radio is more a facade than a reality diversity, rather than laying out a
systematic plan for reviving minority
languages.
● The first radio station devoted to
preserving Hakka culture and fostering
public understanding failed to obtain a
Hakka Language licence in its 1994 application.
● It went ahead and began broadcasting in
Media 1994 as a pirate station
Development ● After several protests, the government
introduced a new ‘special designation’
policy that licence priority would be
granted to stations which allotted at least
Newly democratized: 60 percent of radio time to minority
Hakka radio is more a facade than a reality groups.
● It finally obtained its licence in 1996 under
the special designation policy.
● Ministry level agency (HAC) in charge
of Hakka related issues are
established in 2001
Hakka Language
● A 24/7 Hakka television channel was
Media created in 2003.
Development ● the Hakka Basic Act was passed in
2010
○ fulfilling election promise
Change of government:
Hakka media as election promise
● For most minority language media,
government funding can influence
Hakka Language the content of programmes.
Media ○ government ministries liked to see
innovation, but were less interested
Development in keeping things going for the
longer term
● The budget increase does not
necessarily benefit the low-power
Change of government: Hakka language radio stations.
Hakka media as election promise ○ When minority language stations
compromise for money to survive,
the voices they represent might
change.
Discussion ● Media policy-making is a battleground
(Freedman, 2008)
● Neo-liberalism
○ profits should rule as much of social life as
possible (McChesney, 2008: 15)
● Voice (Couldry, 2010)
○ voice as process
Media policy and its impact on voice ○ voice as value
Additional factors
● Writting system
○ ‘Written unity, spoken diversity’ (Erbaugh, 1995: 83)
● Different accents within the dielect
● Maintenance
○ run by volunteers and have government subsidy as their lifeblood
Conclusion
● the mission to retain the traditional cultures of minority languages and promote cultural diversity
should not fall on minority language media alone, and that the government and mainstream
media ought to take the lead
Thank you for listening!
Chen, Y. C. (2020). Whose voices? How media policy shapes minority language
radio in Taiwan. Global Media and Communication, 16(1), 40-56.
