National culture, multiculturalism and the Albanian media in Macedonia: modern global models and local issues

Abstract

This paper is focused on an analysis conducted on two levels. The Albanian media in the multiethnic Macedonia is analyzed in terms of its place in the pan-Albanian media market, which tends to exceed the boundaries that exist between different states and to follow the model of global media. This media analysis is done in correlation with a study of the Albanian culture in Macedonia and the pan-Albanian national culture. The Albanian media market in Macedonia carries some elements that constitute a special interest for media analysis as it operates in a multilingual social environment, where the concern for the right use of the Albanian language as the second largest official language continues to occupy a good part of the Albanian-speaking media production. This media production from Macedonia is little or not at all present in the Albanian media abroad and therefore the micro-culture of the Albanians of Macedonia, is little known from the Albanian audience abroad. This phenomenon occurs while the Albanian public in Macedonia is a consumer of media production from Albania and from Kosovo. How and why is this partial exchange happening? Is this a cultural or a professional phenomenon? From the methodological point of view this is a work based on the ethnography of communication. This approach enables media production elements as well as elements of professional information and communication to be analyzed in a close relationship with the cultural context of the society in which the media operates.