Multicultural broadcasting and diasporic video as public sphericules

Abstract

Broadcasting constitutes a major platform on which contemporary public cultures may be built and managed. However, mainstream broadcasting, even when its charter responsibilities focus on service to and representation of a culturally pluralistic social field, has limits as it seeks to meet these responsibilities. Diasporic video, although marginal to most national media ecologies, is important at a global level in addressing cultural maintenance and renewal. This factor is neglected in existing accounts of the emergence of a genuinely multicultural and international public culture. © 2000 Sage Publications, Inc.