Journalism, Place and Citizenship

Chinatown in Seattle, WA.

I conduct research on how various transnational populations, like immigrants, diasporas and refugees, are portrayed in mainstream media, and how and why they create their own niche media.

My research on diasporas explores how geographically dispersed groups forge group identity through new media technologies.  When I began my research on immigrant media several years ago, I set out with a similar agenda - to see how immigrant media in the U.S. were adapting to the "digital age."

Me (right) visiting a Vietnamese newspaper in Seattle.
Photo by my co-author, Kristin Gustafson. 

I soon learned I was asking the wrong question.  Small, geographically-based foreign-language newspapers can still be profitable, buoyed by non-English speakers and advertisements targeting their specific communities.

Most all of the editors I interviewed said they wished they could do more with digital media, but
lacked the time and resources to invest in it either for news gathering or for content delivery.

Ironically, despite being ambivalent about social media and mobile news in their news organizations, many interviewees were heavy users of technology and would show me videos and photos on their phones. Furthermore, when pressed, they talked about how informal digital communications, texting, in particular, were used in their communities to share important social news.  For example, in North Carolina I learned immigrants would text each other about police road stops to avoid if they did not have a valid driver's license.

All of this has lead me to reconsider the value of the communities of residence in transnational communities. Too often, perhaps, research has focused on digital ties at the expense of the smaller geographic communities and their mediated but informal public spheres. As such, I'm eager to move my focus from producers of transnational media to transnational audiences within small geographic communities.