1st PLURILINGMEDIA General Conference: Media and Language Vitality
About the Conference
PLURILINGMEDIA General Conference #1: Media and Language Vitality The first general conference of PLURILINGMEDIA will be held in Warsaw on Thursday 4th and Friday 5th December 2025.
The aim of the Conference is to discuss how media can contribute to the vitality of minority, regional, minoritized and lesser-used languages. The role of the media in language use, maintenance, revitalization and development in the 21st century seems to be crucial as the media are an integral part of people’s everyday lives. While traditional (analogue) media serve to inform audiences, strengthen collective identity and can be used to facilitate the development of passive knowledge of a language (understanding, reading), social media channels are also active communication platforms. They create (safe) spaces to use a minority/minoritized language, to perform (linguistically and in terms of identity), and to be in a community of speakers.
Media is used by individuals, but it is also a tool of institutions representing minority/minoritized communities. It is used in education: as facilitators of language learning; their role in developing individual and social literacy cannot be overestimated. Media content is also used as part of everyday language practice, in families, by language activists and organizations. Outlets are taken into account in language planning and often play a crucial role in language top-down and bottom-up policy.
Today, minority language media is (to some extent) supported by new technologies, but its role in the vitality of minority languages remains an open question. Another topic related to language vitality concerns language attitudes and ideologies: how are they produced and reproduced by the media; how does media affect the reception and representation of minority/minority languages and communities? All topics at the intersection of media and minority/minoritized language vitality are welcome, with particular emphasis on:
- education and literacy
- new technologies as used in minority language media
- speakers, language practices and language revitalization
- language policy and planning • language attitudes and ideologies
- and other issues touching on the role of the media in the vitality of minority/minoritized languages.
Please note that the overarching theme of the conference is Minority Language Media and Language Vitality, and proposals that do not address this theme will not be considered.
Dates and location
Thursday 4th to Friday 5th December 2025
Institute of Slavic Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences
Conference Host and Leader of Working Group 3: Professor Nicole Dołowy-Rybińska
Vice-Leader of Working Group 3: Professor Sanita Martena
The PLURILINGMEDIA General Conference: Media and Language Vitality will be organized in collaboration with the Institute of Slavic Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences, on the site of the Pałac Staszica (the Staszic Palace), headquarter of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
About PLURILINGMEDIA
PLURILINGMEDIA (COST Action CA23105) is an EU-funded research network uniting academics, practitioners, and policymakers to explore the evolving landscape of minority and regional language media across 41 COST member states and beyond. We investigate how digitalization, policy, and multilingualism shape media representation, support cross-border research collaborations and knowledge exchange, provide funding for Short-Term Scientific Missions (STSMs) and Inclusiveness Target Country Grants (ITC Grants), and organize training schools, workshops, and conferences to advance research and practice. The Action includes four Working Groups:
- Audience and content-creator habits
- Legislation and Standards
- Language Vitality
- Journalism
PLURILINGMEDIA intends to advance collaboration and bring coherence to the field of European media from the perspective of language plurality, encouraging involvement of scholars in related disciplines and facilitating knowledge transfer between academics and practitioners. Spreading instances of good practice will be of particular relevance to smaller linguistic spheres and lesserfunded media outlets. PLURILINGMEDIA plans to demonstrate the plurality of a given regional or minority language sphere, empowering use of the language through media. More information about the Action can be found here.