TG4, Irish Language Broadcasting and the Impact of Location
摘要
This chapter discusses the Irish language terrestrial television channel, TG4, focusing specifically on its identity as a regional, minority-language broadcaster. Given the relative lack of research in this area and on the political economy of Irish broadcasting generally, the opening section of the chapter is devoted to sketching out how TG4 is positioned within Irish terrestrial broadcasting. The discussion then moves to the evolution of the station as a minority-language channel and how that responds to national policies on the protection of the Irish language. The chapter analyses the significance of the location of TG4 in Connemara, in the West of Ireland and how this informs its claim to distinctiveness, offering ‘another perspective’; this analysis also includes an historical overview of the tensions between the regions and the centre (of Dublin/Wicklow). The second part of this chapter analyses how TG4 is funded and the relationship of TG4 to the regional production economy, arguing that we need to view this relationship as an ecology of interdependencies. The challenges of regional Irish language production for TG4, notably in terms of training and retaining Irish language creative workers, are given further consideration.