Ethnic media, civic culture, and integration: A study on the aspirations of producers of online Arabic media in Sweden

Abstract: This qualitative study draws on in-depth interviews with producers of online Arabic media in Sweden. It explores their motivations and aspirations in relation to certain key concepts, particularly civic culture and integration. By using Dahlgren’s (2009) notion of civic culture as theoretical framework, the author is able to illustrate how the producers and their media strive to provide communicative spaces for increased civic engagement. Furthermore, the analysis shows how the producers’ aims, and the way they see their media’s social and cultural role, resonate with Dahlgren’s conceptualization of what constitutes civic culture. The study also finds that these Arabic media producers do not seek to contribute to the formation of, for example, diasporic identities, but rather aspire to strengthen immigrants’ integration and sense of belonging in Swedish society. As such, debates around ethnic media’s corrosive function may, in some respects, be overly alarmist.