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Portuguese-language broadcasting in linguistic and cultural maintenance in northern California

The significance of societal institutions in linguistic and cultural maintenance has long been recognized and described by researchers on the sociology of language (such as Fishman 1966). The significant institutions (frequently referred to elsewhere in the literature as domains) have been identified as the home, one's friends, the school, the church, and the workplace. The types of communication characteristic of these institutions are interpersonal; as such, they would be assumed to have great influence on the values and behavior of their audience (Gumpert and Cathcart 1979: 413-421). The mass media, as institutions playing a role in linguistic and cultural maintenance, have recently begun to be examined more frequently (for example, Beardsmore 1984); nevertheless, as Beardsmore notes, 'it is surprising how very little is known about the impact of television on language from whatever angle one may look at the question' (Beardsmore 1984: 5). The same ignorance extends to the other electronic medium, radio. Two factors contributing to the difficulty of making meaningful comparisons between the established institutions and the mass media are simply that the mass media incorporate nonpersonal modes of communication and that the messages are prepared for multiple listeners who share certain common interests. Contributing to the difficulty of analyzing the role of the mass media in the maintenance of language and culture is the dearth of studies concerning nonEnglish-language media and the ethnic groups which they serve. The shortcoming holds particularly for the electronic media, radio and television. The purpose of this article is to assess the institutional role of broadcasting as perceived by broadcasters and community leaders not involved in broadcasting. The Portuguese in northern California were chosen for this study primarily because some conscious effort was being made to utilize broadcasting as a linguistic and cultural maintenance tool. This study concentrated primarily on the San Francisco Bay Area but included the northern San Joaquin Valley and Arcata and Eureka in Humboldt County. This area contains a concentration of Portuguese-speaking persons