The representations of Dutch among Belgian French-speaking journalists and of French among Belgian Dutch-speaking journalists

Researchers

Catherine Bouko (UGent Faculty of Arts and Philosophy & CJS)

Astrid Vandendaele (Leiden University)

Olivier Standaert (UCLouvain)

At a time when each of the French- and Dutch-speaking communities of Belgium speaks their counterpart’s language to an ever-decreasing degree, we examined to what extent today’s media play a part in transmitting and sharing the language and culture of the other community. Our research focused on televised news broadcasts (RTBF and VRT), specifically. We sought to examine how the Dutch and the French languages are used when journalists prepare and produce their reports – during all stages of the process – until the actual broadcast.

Through analysis of 31 semi-structured interviews with journalists from both networks, our study provides both insights into the news production process in a multilingual country, and the individual reporters’ perception of the French- and Dutch-speaking Belgians’ language. By delineating how the idealized benchmark of bilingualism is restrained by pragmatic realities (format, time and language proficiency), we demonstrate how ‘coping strategies’, including collective translation processes, play a role in news production.