Shared Background & Source Credibility: The Impact of Co-ethnicity among Latinos

• In Event: Political Appeals, (Mis)Information, and Racial Politics

Abstract

While the majority of Americans no longer trust news media and newsrooms have failed to reflect the growing diversity of the country, little is known about how these issues affect ethno-racial minorities in the United States. Drawing from multiple literatures with similar underlying assumptions, this study examines the effects of shared background on source credibility among Latinos, the largest ethno-racial minority group in the United States. Through a population-based survey experiment, this study finds that Latinos exposed to news created by a co-ethnic reporter are significantly more likely to report higher levels of source credibility than their Latino counterparts exposed to news created by a non-Hispanic reporter. These findings, however, are contingent on the type of news media that Latinos consume. In doing so, the findings of this study not only provide an understanding of the effects of Hispanic media elites on US Latinos, but also present an insight on the opportunities and limitations of the impact of Latino media elites on source credibility.

Authors

• Barbara Gomez-Aguinaga, University of Nebraska Omaha

• D. Xavier Medina Vidal, University of Arkansas