Digital Commons Network^™

Media Ownership Matters: Localism, The Ethinic Minority, News Audience And Community Participation, Kehbuma Langmia

Department of Strategic, Legal, and Management Communications Faculty Publications

The study’s goals were to explore patterns in news consumption in ethnic minority communities and to discern the relationship of that consumption to community participation. We interviewed 196 participants in three Washington, DC, metro neighborhoods. Participants were African-American, Latino, African and other ethnic minorities, 52% female and 48% male. About half the participants said they get their news from television, with Fox and NBC preferred. About a fourth said they read a newspaper. Those listening to radio (18%) overwhelmingly preferred a minority-owned station. Participants leaned toward believing the news did not help them to understand crime, rising costs of living …