Between language support and activism: A complementary journalistic function among European minority-language newspeople

This article outlines the extent to which journalists working in European minority-language media believe that their journalistic role within the community is strictly professional or alternatively should incorporate a complementary function as language supporters or activists. A weighted and reasonably representative survey of 230 journalists from 10 European minority-language communities (Basque, Catalan, Galician, Corsican, Breton, Frisian, Irish, Welsh, Scottish-Gaelic, and Sámi) indicates that journalists favour a journalistic professional activity which incorporates a role as language-backing actors. This may underlie the idea of a contextual approach to the concept of journalism. © 2010 Taylor & Francis.