Public Service Broadcasting as an Infrastructure of Translation in the Age of Cultural Diversity

Abstract

This article investigates a redefined socio-cultural role of European public service broadcasting as an infrastructure of translation in times of globalization, migration and the proliferation of new media providers. Drawing upon research into multilingual broadcasting in Europe and Australia, and in particular a case study of Special Broadcasting Service Australia (SBS), it argues for an ongoing relevance of European public service broadcasting (PSB), albeit within wider conceptions of translingual, transnational or European citizenship. It is proposed that of the two versions of translation, institutional in the EU and mediated in Australia respectively, the mediated version has achieved higher success in communicating diversity across hybrid communities. The main point raised here is the importance of `connections' and, within the framework of `cultural diversity' and `multilingualism' in Europe, arguably at the expense of `Europeanness'. The concept of translation allows thought beyond a single language but also beyond diversity and towards interlingual communication and `mutual intelligibility'. As such it is useful to inform a community-building media policy for Europe as a necessary alternative to the historically dominant top-down EU language policy.