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Nation wide news bulletins across a nation, small or large, understandably reflect the language, political shade and culture of her predominant inhabitants.
Across China, Pu Tong Hua or the Standard Speak, is pervasive across the massive extent of her territory, from Hei Long jian in the north east to Tibet in the south west. The national tv broadcaster, CCTV, uses an updated version of a language agreed upon the embarkation of the Republic formed after the fall of the last imperial dynasty in 1911.
We are what we speak. Our thoughts are articulated in the language we speak. We often do not lose the ability to speak the language of our childhood, in the community or nation where we first grow up.
The reinforcement of constant language spoken by or to us is reflected in what is articulated in news media, whether spoken, written, read or listened to. Nations with a mainly homogenous demographic have no issues with the choice of official national language.
What then faces countries with a diverse population in terms of ethnicity, culture and language? There are societies facing this situation due to past colonialism, history or active recruitment of immigrants from different parts of the world.
The Republic of South Africa has a dozen official languages but English and Afrikaans rule the news broadcasts there.
Singhalese dominate in Sri Lanka. Both Thailand and Indonesia stand out in using only their national languages as news broadcasts, with English notably absent - this is understandable as Thailand was never colonised and Indonesia was under the Dutch colonists. However, both countries have diverse cultural groups in their domain.
The island Republic of Singapore has a national language of Malay and three official languages of Mandarin, English and Tamil. Yes, the free to air news telecasts are available daily in all the four languages. Even public announcements on the MRT reflect these four languages.
The nearby Federation of Malaysia in contrast has elevated Malay to increasingly be the de facto lingua franca of national and official stature. I understand there may only be a sole English language news bulletin on free to air tv in Malaysia ( on a commercial channel if I am not wrong). The numbers of non Malays in the current 34 million population of Malaysia has decreased since the 1980s due to migration, official discrimination, low birth rates and political climate.
The United States has had an image of welcoming migration. Think of the lure of the Statute of Liberty, Hollywood movies, university admission, relatively low taxation amongst the Western nations, lifestyle attractions and the power of so called democracy. Even if Latin Americans propel in numbers to be an ever larger percentage of the USA population, the Englush language dominates in news broadcasts, although Spanish cannot be ignored, especially in the parts that truly and formerly were part of Mexico. Immigrants from overseas continue to take to the English language like ducks to water, especially those from former colonies of the now defunct British Empire.
Australia had a long term White Australia Policy, until it was dismantled by Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in the 1970s. Since then it has embraced diversity in its welcoming of migrants, until recent developments domestically and in geopolitics. It is said that capital cities
like Melbourne and Sydney have residents with backgrounds of around 200 nations.
The news media across Australia is mainly in the English language. An exception is the free to air SBS service funded by taxpayers and going into its 50th year. I recall being impressed by SBS streaming in news bulletins from across the world as early as the late 1980s. I could tune in overnight to uncensored news presentations in their original non- English languages.
Sad to say, since the reign of former Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Russian language news from Moscow and Mandarin language news from Beijing have not been allowed on SBS. Instead SBS World Watch now streams in daily news bullletins of several languages from India, apart from Hindi. There are perhaps 200 separate Indigenous cultures across the Australian continent, yet there is no regular news broadcast in any Aboriginal language.
English language news prevalence in daily news across Australia is spiked by access on free to air of news from the BBC, CBS, NBC, ABC USA, Deutsche Welle, France 24, CBC Canada, NHK and the Phillippines.
In recognition of the significant role of English as a practical international language of communication, technology, politics, finance and trade, several newscasters of note provide world wide access of news in that language.
#yongkevthoughts
