News Representation and Sense of Belonging Among Multicultural Audiences

Sora Park, Jee Young Lee, Kieran McGuinness, Rebecca Griffiths and Thu Nguyen
Additional contact information
Sora Park: News & Media Research Centre, University of Canberra, Australia
Jee Young Lee: News & Media Research Centre, University of Canberra, Australia
Kieran McGuinness: News & Media Research Centre, University of Canberra, Australia
Rebecca Griffiths: Special Broadcasting Service, Australia
Thu Nguyen: Special Broadcasting Service, Australia

Media and Communication, 2023, vol. 11, issue 4, 264-273

Abstract: This study seeks to understand the role of representation in news media, trust in news, and participation in multicultural audiences’ sense of belonging to society. A multimodal survey combining online, CATI, and CAPI methods was conducted in Australia at the end of 2021 and early 2022 ( N = 1,084). The top five non-English language communities in Australia (Arabic, Cantonese, Italian, Mandarin, and Vietnamese) were included in the survey, of which n = 851 were born overseas. The findings reveal a significant link between the perception of sufficient representation in Australian news media, trust in news, confidence to participate in society, and sense of belonging. When multicultural audiences see themselves fairly and adequately represented in the news, they are more likely to trust the news and participate in the community by discussing the news and current affairs. This, in turn, leads to a stronger sense of belonging to society. We also found confidence in English and time spent in Australia were important factors contributing to perceptions of representation. While the length of stay has a positive impact on the perception of representation among those with high confidence in English, this perception is significantly lower among those who have lower confidence. This result confirms the significant role language proficiency plays in migrants’ experiences in the host country.

Keywords: Australia; migrants; multicultural communities; news representation; news trust; sense of belonging (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7002 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cog:meanco:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:264-273

DOI: 10.17645/mac.v11i4.7002

Access Statistics for this article

Media and Communication is currently edited by Raquel Silva

More articles in Media and Communication from Cogitatio Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by António Vieira () and IT Department ().