Manual of Romance Languages in the Media by Kristina Bedijs Christiane Maaß

Author:Kristina Bedijs, Christiane Maaß
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Published: 2017-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

5.3Macro-level recommendations

In a tacit knowledge frame, management can foster workplace conditions that facilitate knowledge transformation instead of constraining it. From the Idée Suisse findings, the project team drew the following five macro-level recommendations for policy makers and media managers.

–Plan dynamically. Not surprisingly, a naïve view of language planning as topdown implementation of policies falls short. Setting language policy – language “policing” – is better understood as the interplay of policy and practice (cf. Blommaert et al. 2009, 203; Kelly-Holmes/Moriarty/Pietikäinen 2009, 228). Preferred language use is oriented to shared goals and grounded in shared attitudes, knowledge, and methods. More surprisingly, neither media policy-makers nor media management seem to be aware of these problems related to attempts at top-down policy making. Frustration on both sides – mandate is unrealistic vs. SRG SSR is lazy – could be overcome by a more integrative, dynamic view of policy making.

–Integrate practitioners. Practicing language policy making dynamically and comprehensively means integrating those involved, as stakeholders of both the problems and the solutions. As could be shown in the Idée Suisse project, experienced journalists contribute to promoting public understanding by emergent solutions based on their tacit knowledge. Locally, they prove that public mandate and market demands can be bridged with appropriate attitudes, knowledge, and methods. Knowing more about their approaches could help on three levels: first, it enables other practitioners to learn from their experience in the organization; second, it allows the management to develop and radiate a positive, non-hypocritical view of the mandate; third, it shows the organization acting a public service provider; and finally, it helps media policy to legitimize public funding in the public interest.

–Foster emergent solutions. Media policy-makers and media management need not know in detail how the mandate can be fulfilled. As one of the expert interviewees said, promoting public understanding starts in the newsrooms. However, there is no justification for media policy-makers and management not to know how to foster this creative approach to demanding challenges in the organization and particularly in the newsrooms. This is where research can make a contribution.

–Transform knowledge. If existing knowledge has not yet been released, then knowledge experts can help to identify and transform it. Researchers at the interface of applied linguistics and research frameworks such as ethnography and Transdisciplinary Action Research are experienced at revealing “what works for whom in what circumstances” (e. g., Sealey/Carter 2004, 197, drawing on Pawson/Tilley 1997), on reflecting on the “transferability” of such situated knowledge (cf. Denzin/Lincoln 22000, 21s.), and at returning the knowledge to the organization in understandable and sustainable generalized forms, for example as ethnographically-based narratives and typologies of critical situations and good practices.

–Scale up. If a knowledge transformation approach is promising on the level of internal multilingualism (i.e., promoting public understanding between societal groups such as the politically informed vs. uninformed), it is even more necessary on the level of external multilingualism (i.e., communication and understanding across linguistic regions). The interviews from the Idée Suisse project’s macro-level modules A and B show that the SRG SSR management has been disappointed by practically all organizational measures taken at this level.

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