How do mainstream media communicate minority media? A difference-theoretical study on Radio Islam and AYPA-TV

What is necessary for minority media to be picked up on the radar of mainstream media? This report analyses Swedish media coverage of the Stockholm-based Radio Islam, and German media coverage of the Berlin-based AYPA-TV. Analysis is given from a difference-theoretical point of view, as developed by Niklas Luhmann. The case of Radio Islam, the repeatedly banned – for its broadcasts of hate – community radio station, takes its rightful place in Swedish history. It received intense media attention in the 1990s and provokes reaction even today. The second case, that of the local German-Turkish AYPA-TV, was not covered by the mainstream media to the same degree, but met the media’s criteria for being unusual. What caused these two cases to be taken on by the mainstream media?