Ethnic Media in the U.S. (The Growth of Ethnic Chinese Media)

Ethnic Media in the U.S.

(The Growth of Ethnic Chinese Media)

The past decade has seen an inspiring growth in the number of national and local radio stations, newspapers, magazines, web portals, public and cable television networks catering to the nation’s various ethnic communities. The America, being the melting pot of all ethnicities saw rapid growth of ethnic media which ethnic communities use primarily to re-connect with its ethnic roots.

Types of Ethnic Media in the US

            Though no concrete figures exist for ethnic media nationwide, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the startling growth of print and television journalism in regions like California and New York is by no means anomalous. From Arab American newspaper competition in rural Michigan to Hindi pop tunes anchoring Radio Asia in Tampa, Florida, ethnic media has become a major player aboveground as well, seen most noticeably with NBC’s recent acquisition of the national, 24-hour Telemundo network. Ethnic media in the US can be accessed from all three medium of media, visual, broadcast and print. Internet is said to be the new medium and there is an increasing growth of ethnic media using Internet as its medium.

 A study released by New Media America, an association of more than 700 ethnic media in the United States reveals the striking impact of ethnic media in the United States. Forty-five percent of all African American, Hispanic, Asian American, Native American and Arab American adults prefer ethnic television, radio or newspapers to their mainstream counterparts. These “primary consumers” also indicated that they access ethnic media frequently. This means that a staggering 29 million adults (45 percent of the 64 million ethnic adults studied), or a full 13 percent of the entire adult population of the United States, prefer ethnic media to mainstream television, radio or newspapers. More than half of all Hispanic adults are primary consumers of ethnic media. Approximately two-fifths of African Americans and Arab Americans and a fourth of Asian Americans and Native Americans prefer ethnic media to mainstream media (2005).

            Similar study revealed that Asian American newspapers reach a substantial percentage of the nine million Asian American adults in the United States. More than half of all Chinese and Vietnamese adults read an ethnic newspaper on a regular basis. Nearly half of all Korean adults also read a Korean newspaper frequently. The reach of Filipino newspapers is smaller but still significant – one-fifth of the adults in this group read a Filipino newspaper a few times a month or more. The poll also indicates that Korean and Chinese television stations are rapidly increasing in popularity – a quarter of those interviewed reported watching Korean and Chinese-language television more often than English-language television. Access to the Internet is very high (67 percent) among all Asian Americans and half of them prefer ethnic websites to mainstream websites. Asian Indian adults access the Internet more often than other Asians (2005).

The Importance of Ethnic Media

            Of all the sectors of the news media, the ethnic and alternative media in America are still in many ways the most fluid, popular, and reaches wider coverage. There are not one ethnic media but more than a dozen in the United States. Some sectors of ethnic media are big business. Others are more political and less commercial. The ethnic media are growing rapidly in the United States. This can be particularly said of the ethnic newspapers, the media for which there are most data. Yet evidence suggests that the trend is also true for radio and television (2004).

            Looking simply at the demographic shifts over the past years, it would stand to reason that the nation’s ethnic media would definitely grow. Between the 1980 and 2000 censuses, which are the latest, the number of people identifying themselves as “white” fell from 83 percent to just over 75 percent of the US population (2000).
The estimated number of U.S. residents who say they are Asian or Asian in combination 13.5 million with one or more other races. This group comprises 5 percent of the total population. California has both the largest population (4.6 million) and the largest numerical increase (367,100) of people of this group since April 2000; Hawaii is the state where Asians make up the highest proportion of the total population (58 percent) (May2005).  The latest census also reveals that of the 513,000 Asian Americans living in New York city, almost half of them are Chinese, outnumbering Koreans and Asian Indians. Chinese American is the fastest growing segment of the US population (50%growth rate). Many Chinese Americans who live in the suburbs are successful businessmen from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and second or third generation successful professionals (2004). At the same time, verifying from the same census study, other demographic groups increased. The Asian Pacific islander population for example grew in real numbers and as a percentage of the whole.

            Beyond simple ethnicity, and perhaps more to the point, there has been a large rise in the non English speaking population. Between 1990 and 2000, the number of people not speaking English at home grew from 31.8 million to 47 million, a staggering roughly 50 percent increase in a decade alone. Spanish speakers lead the growth, perhaps because of proximity of Mexico and the mainland US. Growing from 17.3 million in 1990 to 28.1 million in 2000, an increase in 62 percent. Chinese was second in growth, climbing from 1.3 million in 1990 to 2 million in 2000, still an increase in 54 percent ( 2000).

            Together with radio, and to a lesser extent television, community newspapers serve as valuable guides for recent immigrants, introducing them to a new culture and way of life. In most cases, the publishers approach their mission to inform, educate, and entertain with great passion and enthusiasm. Studies also showed that people who read ethnic newspapers as well as mainstream newspapers were better informed of community as well as news of their homeland. They are therefore better informed of local and international events than people who just read mainstream newspapers,

            For many groups in the United States, the media is perceived as credible and is heavily relied upon for health information (Brodie et al 1999). For immigrants the ethnic media is an important institution in immigrant communities because it caters to immigrants as cultural brokers for their communities by translating mainstream knowledge and practices (1980; 1987;  1992; 1995). The ethnic media can play a valuable role in disseminating health information to immigrant communities.

For a variety of reasons the Asian Press is difficult to measure as a group, and the word Asian is more complicated, than let’s say Hispanic minority. Not only does Asian not speak of a single culture or nationality, it also does not define a single particular language. Even within Asian nationalities, there are language differences that make it difficult to group media. China alone has seven distinctly different dialect groups. That said, hat said, it is clear that some Asian language newspapers have large readerships. The World Journal, a Chinese-language daily based in New York, reports it has 250,000 in paid circulation. The Korea Times, in Los Angeles says it has more than 43,000 ( 2004).

 

Ethnic Media (Advertising Potential)

In light of this startling growth, it should come as no surprise that mainstream players are getting into the act and trying to tap into these enclaves of prospective consumers. The recent acquisition of the Telemundo network by NBC for .98 billion had many initially scratching their heads–why had NBC seemingly overpaid for the underachieving network, a distant runner-up to Univision in Latino households nationwide? But if the growing Telemundo–which currently draws between 15 to 20 percent of Latino viewers–allows NBC access to the rising Latino population, in a few years that total may seem like a bargain. For companies like Viacom or NBC, it is beginning to make more business sense to acquire proven niche companies like BET (Black Entertainment Television) or Telemundo at high costs rather than going through the trouble of starting from scratch.

(Why Advertise in Ethnic Media?)

With Ethnic media’s wide access to ethnic communities in the US, it also plays a vital role in reaching and motivating vitally important ethnic consumer groups. Advertising that appears in ethnic media makes an emotional connection with consumers, which is critical to building sales and developing long-term relationships. In California, where the Latino, African-American and Asian-American communities combined make up about half of the state’s population, these groups prefer to get their news and information from ethnic media outlets. What’s more, nearly 65 percent of the ethnic Californians surveyed agreed that they are “more likely to buy a product or service advertised” in an ethnic-oriented publication or program. Latinos exhibited the strongest “advertising loyalty” characteristics followed closely by Asian-Americans. It is also advantageous for firms to advertise in ethnic media. Its chief advantage is cost efficiency since it reaches the people who the advertisement is addressed at a very reasonable price compared to mainstream media.

           

Chinese Media in the US

Mass media are perceived to be powerful shapers of culture and communication in society. National majority media and ethnic minority media are both influential on achieving such reconstructed ideology. Thus, the new form of media business not only differs from the old, but also should be examined for its role of Chinese ethnic minority media. The ethnic press,  are once viewed solely as a special-interest voice and forum for minority groups, has become a fast-growing media market because it is one of the few places helping to document and report on cultural changes in America and its impact to Chinese community. The World Journal is a Chinese-language daily newspaper with 90,000 readers in New York State and 360,000 readers nationally. Founded in 1976, it is the largest Chinese-language newspaper in North America and is part of the 50-year-old United Daily News Group of Taiwan. One of the few U.S. daily newspapers distributed nationally, The World Journal is published in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Houston, Vancouver and Toronto. Staff members in each city contribute local articles to the newspaper, which focuses on China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia.It has been a steady growth pattern, rather than sudden, said Ms. Lee, who said staying relevant to a younger generation has been a key to growth. Census data rank Chinese speakers second to Spanish speakers in America’s non-English-speaking population; the former grew from 1.3 million in 1990 to 2 million in 2000.

The overseas Chinese press is known for its enormous size. Some 30 million Chinese are living outside China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao and constitute one of the largest ethnic groups in dozens of countries. Serving them are a large number of Chinese-language newspapers and magazines, which could be traced well back to the early 19th century, when the first overseas Chinese newspaper San Francisco News was founded in 1854 and the first overseas Chinese daily was founded in 1856. At the beginning of this decade, there were 64 daily Chinese-language newspapers published outside China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao. If the weeklies, biweeklies and magazines were included, the total number would reach 300.

Among many other things, the ethnic Chinese publications cover local Chinese communities, report news from the “mother country” and advocate Chinese values, tradition and culture, and by doing so they have greatly contributed to increasing the cohesiveness of the Chinese community. A study of the Chinatown in New York City, for instance, shows that, Chinese immigrants in the New York City are living in a rather comprehensive Chinese media environment, complete with diverse and familiar sources of print and electronic materials. Chinese media inform immigrants about events that have taken place within and outside their community and about available social service. These media also offer an easy source by which older immigrants can maintain a stabilizing continuity in their cultural and entertainment life and younger immigrants maintain contact with their roots.

Chinese Media Setbacks

Political suppression was one of the main reasons for the significant set back of Chinese ethnic media. Even in the United States where freedom of the press is defended as a pillar of American democracy, publications by Chinese immigrants were also harassed for their support of the People’s Republic of China during the Cold War.

Chinese press has also been suffering from a decline in the use of the Chinese language. To maintain a sizable audience, the Chinese press depends very much on the Chinese education of second and third generations of Chinese immigrants, yet this has become increasingly more difficult.

Although the overseas Chinese education saw fast development following World War II, it has been suffering continued setbacks since the 1950s. On the one hand, as more and more Chinese immigrants began to be assimilated into the local culture, the second and third generations of Chinese immigrants often could not use the Chinese language effectively to consume the Chinese-language media. On the other hand, the assimilation policy adopted in many countries towards their Chinese population had a direct impact on the education of overseas Chinese. In some Southeast Asian countries, governments imposed restrictions on Chinese schools.

Market competition with the mainstream media causes another problem for the Chinese-language press since it is much more difficult for ethnic media to survive financially. The early overseas Chinese media often faced more financial strains than other media because the potential size of its readership was always limited; and the distribution usually more difficult, with many potential consumers living in faraway and isolated places. As a result, the development of Chinese-language press has been fluctuating all the time, with a fast rate of coming and going. For example, of the 10 Chinese dailies published in the United States in the 1980s, more than half of them are gone today. In the early days of Chinese-language press, a newspaper was often started as a mission rather than a viable financial operation. In most cases, the Chinese-language media were financed by Chinese businessmen through individual or collective investment.Such investment was usually aimed at providing a community service rather than generating profits.

The Internet and the Chinese Ethnic Media

Although the Internet is still neophyte and computer media are not yet in a position to replace the traditional media, there are already signs that computer-mediated mass communication is bringing about a new turn for the conventional Chinese-language press by solving or easing some of its problems. The global nature of computer-mediated communication has drastically changed the way information is disseminated, making it hard to identify and terminate the source of origin. A government will find it more difficult to keep its people from publicizing and receiving information. In other words, although the Internet does not necessarily lead to change in government attitude towards the Chinese publications, it reduces the effects of restrictions imposed on them. The Internet has also expanded the role of the traditional mass media by blending their news function with entertainment and education. And this development is significant in helping the Chinese immigrants and their children to maintain their cultural roots.

Conclusion

Despite the large number of Chinese immigrants in various parts of the world, the ethnic Chinese press has been on the decline due to political restrictions, financial strains and the decline of Chinese education overseas. Although the new waves of immigration from China and other Chinese-speaking regions over the last two decades helped to boost the development of ethnic Chinese press overseas for the time being, there is no guarantee that the new immigrants and their children will not follow the steps of earlier immigrants in being culturally assimilated. The development of the Internet is thus bringing a new leaf to the life of overseas Chinese language press by effectively easing its problems. Moreover, the Internet is also helping to expand the functions of the traditional media by offering more diversified and specialized communication among overseas Chinese. Considering the role the ethnic press plays in the formation and consolidation of ethnic communities, the impact of the Internet goes far beyond the fields of publication. It has long been established that minority language newspapers helped minority people to keep their ethnic identity (Werner, 1984) because they function to pass on knowledge, values and norms from one generation to another or from the members of a society to newcomers. In this way they serve to increase social cohesion by widening the base of common experience (1974). It is in this sense that the ethnic press is said to be a force in adjusting the balance between the maintenance of native ways and adoption of new ways of life by immigrants, who are pulled in two directions.

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