Acculturation, Ethnic Performance, and Ethnic Media Use

• In Event: Intercultural Research in Cultural Adaptation

Abstract

The present study focuses on how and why immigrants in a transnational global context access and engage with home country media. This paper applies the integrative acculturation model, group vitality theory, and, uses and gratifications approaches to understand media engagement among Indian-American immigrants. Existing literature has narrowly focused on lack of proficiency with host county language as the primary reason for ethnic media consumption. We argue that for Indian-Americans the motivation for using ethnic media is not driven by a lack of assimilation into the U.S. or by lack of English language skills but by their ethnic identification. We developed the “Ethnic Performance Index,” a new measure that captures a broad range of ethnic performances such as food, festivals, and shared customs. A survey was conducted with Indian-Americans across various educational backgrounds, income levels, and age groups to explore the relationships amongst ethnic media use, level of acculturation, and ethnic identification. Results show that the new “Ethnic Performance Index” measure is a better predictor of ethnic media usage than length of stay in host country, acculturation indices, language proficiency, and existing measures of ethnic identification.

Authors

• Srividya Ramasubramanian, Texas A and M U

• Marissa Joanna Doshi, Hope College