Ethnic and sexual minorities in the Lithuanian mass media: images and issues
ENEthnocentrism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and homophobia remain the crucial problems in the public sphere in Lithuania. The Lithuanian media still tend to perpetuate discrimination and hostility against ethnic and sexual minorities. Minority groups share relative invisibility and one-sided stereotypical representations. By not paying nearly enough attention to ethnic and sexual minorities in the everyday situations, the Lithuanian press and television participate in their marginalization. This paper describes how the Lithuanian mass media represent ethnic and sexual minorities. It proposes policy-oriented recommendations on how to change popular media representations of ethnic and sexual groups. The proposed measures include: the establishment of a monitoring group that is to conduct a continued analysis of the portrayals of ethnic and sexual minorities in various media; the promotion of a multicultural approach to program content and the avoidance of programs that present society in mono-cultural and mono-linguistic terms; the formulation of more elaborate recommendations and guidelines for the coverage of ethnic and sexual minorities; the organization of seminars and training courses for media professionals on the subject of tolerance and multiculturalism; the enhancement of professional training of Lithuanian journalists, multicultural awareness and continuing on-the-job monitoring of professional practice; the organization of periodical publicity campaigns to expose media discrimination against ethnic and sexual minorities and to highten the public awareness of media images that are insulting and demeaning to minorities. Ethnic and sexual minorities share relative invisibility and demeaning stereotypes in the Lithuanian mass media.Although the media can be an important means of combating aggressive nationalism, ethnocentrism and homophobia, the Lithuanian media still tend to perpetuate discrimination and hostility against minorities. The media generally plays insufficient attention to the problems encountered by ethnic and sexual minorities. The question of visibility has always been crucial for ethnic and sexual minority groups since visibility and inclusion can translate their views and concerns into issues of public interest. By gaining publicity in the mainstream Lithuanian mass media they can gain access to the sites of public policy formation and agendasetting. In this paper, I will describe how the Lithuanian mass media represent ethnic and sexual minorities. There are differences as well as similarities in the ways these two minority groups are treated in the media. Therefore, I will propose two separate sets of policy-oriented recommendations on how to change popular media representations of ethnic and sexual groups. [From the publication]
