The Non-standing Committee on Catalan in the Digital Environment and New Technological Formats has held its latest meeting and presented its conclusions. The main conclusion is the creation of a local language plan for Barcelona, aimed at coordinating the various measures to help promote the use of Catalan. This is the key measure proposed by the committee’s rapporteur, Marta Rovira. However, it is accompanied by other measures and proposals that, at the municipal level, aim to promote Catalan in the digital environment and in new technological formats for young people. For example, the committee advocates the idea that “investment in content must be combined with the launch of resources that facilitate connections among young people who create content, as well as support for professionalisation, positioning Catalan as a means of communication rather than an end in itself”. It also concludes that it is necessary to connect policies aimed at the digital space with the youth policies, neighbourhood policies, and cultural policies of Barcelona City Council”. Therefore, “it is crucial to approach the promotion of the Catalan language in a cross-cutting way”, meaning that the cultural and linguistic dimension should be incorporated into future youth plans, while also involving young people in language policies.

The Non-standing Committee on Catalan in the Digital Environment and New Technological Formats was established by an agreement of the Committee for Social Rights, Culture, and Sports on 12 December 2023, and was ratified at the Full Municipal Council on 23 February 2024. Over the following months, four discussion sessions were held, exploring the topic from various perspectives and featuring input from professionals and experts in various fields: new audiovisual formats, content creators, successful projects in Catalan-speaking regions, and the role of public media.

The proposed lines of action were drawn from the common points expounded during the discussions by committee members. From the outset, they highlighted the importance of combining institutional policies with informal contexts, as institutions play a key role in guiding and legitimising language use. In addition, youth culture is created in informal social spaces and on the internet, with social media amplifying the significance of these spaces.

The proposals have been compiled in the final report, organised around four main ideas: grounding and rooting technology, promoting Barcelona’s creative universe, encouraging Catalan language skills and use at the neighbourhood level, and developing cultural and youth language policies.

Specifically, the proposed measures include creating new youth role models who use Catalan as their main language of communication online, while showcasing the diversity of Barcelona’s youth; involving young people in the design and creation of content for institutional campaigns targeting youth groups; developing a map of young artists to highlight those who can professionally contribute resources and solutions for public campaigns and the private sector; reconsidering the style of public campaigns; and launching a campaign to foster the connection between Catalan and the Barcelona identity among young people through the social media platforms they use most.