Flyktpodden: Migrant and Minority Voices that Matter?

Abstract

In recent years, podcasting has frequently functioned as a tool ‘to tell stories emanating from routinely marginalized lived experiences’ (Vrikki and Malik, 274). Flyktpodden is a podcast aiming to facilitate intergenerational dialogue about escape, persecution, and migration, thereby challenging mainstream stereotypes and generating understanding of different people’s lives. This article examines the podcast through the theoretical concepts of voice (Couldry) and listening (Bassel), addressing how the podcast uses life stories to broaden the cultural awareness of escape, persecution, and migration. This article further asks whether migrant and minority voices are ascribed agency and allowed to matter. Based on a qualitative content analysis, this article concludes that the podcast offers an eclectic collection of life stories on migration and persecution through which migrants and minorities are allowed to be both vulnerable and agentive. The podcast’s intergenerational and dialogic format gives their voices legitimacy and recognition, thus challenging the hierarchy of value and attention. Moreover, it enables marginalized groups to formulate counter-narratives (Vrikki and Malik) on the historic and present-day situation in Sweden rarely heard in the public sphere.

Keywords

• migrant media
• voice
• listening
• podcasting