This paper is about the role of video in the representation and communication of identity among ethnic and linguistic minorities.
Modern society and mass media are highly intertwined and play major roles in linking "global culture" to "local culture", tradition to modernisation - in the building of cultural identity. In Italy, like in many other countries, we can observe a revival of tradition and a search for cultural heritage. But does minority audio-visual production have access to television broadcasting stations? The present empirical study analyses 251 documentaries (produced in the "Provincia of Udine" - Italy) by various ethnic and linguistic minorities (in the period dating 1970-1995). Most of these videos were not broadcast, but shown on local occasions or were seen with private VCR among these minorities: Friulan, Slovenian, Rom-Sinti, German. The focus of the study is on ideology and self-representation of these social identities through video. I intend to discuss the general political and geographical situation concerning the ethnic minorities mentioned above; the access to media in general which videos produced by these minorities have; the difference in reliability between documentaries and fiction (for the purpose of cultural representation) and finally various interesting details that emerge from the study of these videos.
