Abstract
In this exploratory chapter, “medium theory” is employed to examine the relationship between media broadly understood and community-consciousness among Roma (Gypsies), seeking to understand how conceptions of identity and community have changed in moving from oral to electronic culture. Throughout, ample consideration is given to the role and use of language regarding Roma identity and culture. Note that in writing in general terms about the Roma and Romani culture, it is important to remember that in reality the culture includes a variety of very distinct and diverse groups and individuals. Electronic culture highlights this plurality of smaller communities within a larger general and even global community, specifically with increased calls for political unification of all Roma people. In the first part of the chapter, medium theory is described and an assessment is made of media effects on social communication and identity in moving from an oral to print culture. Next, the relationships between print and nationalism are considered on the one hand, and between print and the representation of Roma as “social problems” and “research subjects,” on the other. Following this, the representational space of print is set aside and the participatory space of Roma “talking back” is examined. In concluding, the authors speculate on the transformative potential with the experience of space that accompanies digital technologies, arguing that as communication across various Roma groups continues to increase and knowledge of Roma in general continues to increase that the potential for a loose unity globally and strong diversity locally will occur simultaneously.
References
Anderson, B. (1991). Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin of and spread of nationalism (pp. 132–133). New York: Verso.
Barany, Z. (1998). Orphans of transition: Gypsies in Eastern Europe. Journal of Democracy, 9(3), 142–156.
Belton, B. (2005). Questioning gypsy identity: Ethnic narratives in Britain and America. Lanham: AltaMira Press.
Cottaar, A., Lucassen, L., & Willems, W. (1998). Gypsies and other itinerant groups: A socio-historical approach. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Deibert, R. J. (1997). Parchment, printing and hypermedia: Communication in world order transformation. New York: Columbia University Press.
Fraser, A. (1995). The gypsies: The people of Europe. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell.
Gypsy Lore Society. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.gypsyloresociety.org/
Hancock, I. (1987). The pariah syndrome: An account of gypsy slavery and persecution. Ann Arbor: Karoma Publishing.
Hancock, I. (1995). On Romani origins and identity. RADOC. Retrieved February 27, 2016, from http://www.radoc.net/radoc.php?doc=art_b_history_origins&lang=&articles=true
Hancock, I. (1997a). Duty and beauty, possession and truth: The claim of lexical impoverishment as control. In Romani culture and gypsy identity (pp. 180–187). Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire Press.
Hancock, I. (1997b). The struggle for the control of identity. Transitions, 4(4), 36–44.
Hancock, I. (2002). We are the Romani people. Hertfordshire: University of Hertfordshire Press.
Hodge, N. (2011). Romani orthographies. Romani Project. Retrieved February 21, 2016, from http://romani.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/downloads/2/Hodge_Romani%20Orthographies.pdf
Innis, H. A. (1964). The bias of communication. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Keet-Black, J. (2011). Gypsy war heroes: The ultimate sacrifice. Gypsy Roma Traveller. Retrieved May 16, 2016, from http://grthm.natt.org.uk/war-heroes.php
Kenrick, D. (1973). The destiny of Europe’s gypsies. Toronto: Columbus Centre.
Kovats, M. (2003). The politics of Roma identity: Between nationalism and destitution, Open Democracy. Retrieved April 29, 2016, from https://www.opendemocracy.net/people-migrationeurope/article_1399.jsp
Ladányi, J., & Szelényi, I. (2003). Patterns of exclusion: Constructing gypsy ethnicity and the making of an underclass in transitional societies of Europe. New York: Columbia University Press.
Lytov, D. (2014). The use of Romani language in the internet and the Roma identity. Retrieved April 26, 2016, from https://www.academia.edu/12400574/The_use_of_Romani_language_in_the_Internet_and_the_Roma_identity
Marimee, P. (2007). Carmen. Los Angeles: Norilanos Books.
Mayall, D. (2009). Gypsy identities 1500–2000: From Egipcyans and moon-men to the ethnic Romany. New York: Routledge.
McLuhan, M. (1994). Understanding media: The extensions of man. Cambridge: MIT Press.
McLuhan, M. (2011). Gutenberg galaxy: The making of the typographic man (p. 180). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Meyrowitz, J. (1985). No sense of place: The impact of electronic media on social behavior. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Meyrowitz, J. (1994). Medium theory. In: Crowley, D. and Mitchell, D. (eds.) Communication theory today (pp. 50–77). Cambridge: Polity.
Meyrowtiz, J. (1997). Shifting worlds of strangers: Medium theory and changes in “Them” versus “Us”, Sociological Inquiry, 67(1):59–71
Okely, J. (1983). The traveller-gypsies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Silverman, C. (2012). Romani routes: Cultural politics and Balkan music in diaspora (p. 144). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Simmel, G. (1950). The stranger. From Kurt Wolff (Trans.) The sociology of Georg Simmel (pp. 402–408). New York: Free Press.
Tremlett, A. (2009). Bringing hybridity to heterogeneity in Romani studies. Romani Studies, 19(2), 147–168.
Willems, W. (1997). In search of the true gypsy: From enlightenment to the final solution. New York: Routledge.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Smith, C., Maddox, C. (2019). Between Orality and Electronic Culture: Understanding the Changing Conception of Community and Language Use among Roma (Gypsies) Using “Medium Theory”. In: Brunn, S., Kehrein, R. (eds) Handbook of the Changing World Language Map. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73400-2_86-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73400-2_86-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-73400-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-73400-2
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Earth and Environm. ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences