Geolinguistic Regions and Diasporas in the Age of Satellite Television

Abstract

Studies of the globalization processes in the communications media have frequently emphasized the planetary-scale diffusion of the dominant cultural and linguistic models. This is undoubtedly a clearly observable tendency of our age. However, at the same time different tendencies can be observed through which globalization is also affecting other languages and cultures, which have no choice but to globalize themselves since they belong to less favoured communities. This is the case, for example, of the languages that migrant and diasporic populations take with them on their journeys. A detailed analysis of the world panorama of satellite television makes this phenomenon clearly apparent, where the presence of those other languages makes it possible to speak of the formation of geolinguistic regions that cross geographical spaces and the frontiers of the nation-state.