Belgium, despite its small size, is divided by three language communities—the dominant Dutch- and French-speaking, and a small German-speaking community—with social and political life organized along the language borders. This doctoral research is embedded in journalism studies and sociolinguistics to investigate the representation of Belgium's linguistic communities in Dutch- and French-speaking media. 
Each language community in Belgium has its own separate media systems. Banal subnationalist messages in media are expressed through the selection of topics from one's own region, the actors that are given a voice (depending on the journalist’s language skills and contact with sources), and the underlying media discourse about the ‘other’ linguistic community.  The research has three main objectives: (1) Analyze the representation of topics and actors from the linguistic communities in public news broadcasts from 1993 to 2024, (2) Examine the discourse strategies used in news coverage of the 2024 federal and community elections, and (3) Explore the language practices and considerations faced by journalists in newsrooms in a multilingual country like Belgium. A mixed-method approach will be employed, combining quantitative content analysis, qualitative discourse analysis, and semi-structured interviews with media professionals.