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June 16, 2005
Poll: one-in-four
American adults accesses ethnic media
Jeremiah Marquez
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Nearly half the country’s
Hispanics, Asian Americans and other minorities prefer ethnic
newspapers, television and radio to mainstream media, according
to a poll released Tuesday.
Outlets from Korean-language dailies to Spanish-broadcasting powerhouse
Univision Communications Inc. attract 45 percent of adults in
the largest minority groups several times a week over their mainstream
counterparts, a poll commissioned by the nonprofit New California
Media shows.
Overall, ethnic media reach approximately 80 percent of the groups
studied — about 51 million people.
“This is something that is growing like a giant hidden in
plain sight,” said Sandy Close, executive director for NCM,
a nationwide association of more than 700 ethnic media groups.
Many turn to foreign language newspapers and broadcasts because
English isn’t their native tongue. Additionally, minority
media often do a better job covering news from the homeland and
other issues the community cares about.
“We have a multicultural society with multimedia choices,
so people pay attention to media that pay attention to them. That’s
the bottom line,” said Felix Gutierrez , professor of journalism
at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of
Southern California.
Anabel Delgado, 29, a Mexican immigrant who responded to the poll,
watches up to two hours a day of Hispanic soap operas, or telenovelas,
and music videos on Spanish language stations.
She favors the news shows in particular because they focus on
topics affecting Hispanics like immigration.
“The Spanish news seems to let Latinos know more about what
interests us, things English channels don’t talk much about,”
said Delgado, a customer service representative who lives in El
Monte, east of Los Angeles.
The survey found that more than half of all Hispanic adults preferred
ethnic media. About 60 percent of blacks and Arab Americans, and
a fourth of Asian Americans and Native Americans, opted for such
outlets.
Gutierrez said the poll was further evidence that the news media
are fracturing into segments, a trend fueled in part by advertisers
looking to tailor their messages to individual consumers.
Some companies see minorities — many of whom are immigrants
whose tastes and buying habits are still being shaped —
as an untapped market.
Advertising and marketing in mainstream media, about $140 billion
a year, is growing about 3 percent annually, according to NCM
estimates. In Asian American media, marketing dollars hover around
$100 million a year but are expanding about 10 percent. ForHispanic
outlets, ad spending is about $3 billion and increasing at 15
percent.
The poll was conducted through telephone interviews with 1,895
black, Hispanic, Asian American, Arab American and Native American
adults across the country from April to May. It has a margin of
error between 3.5 and 10 percentage points, depending on the sample.
Surveys were conducted in Arabic, Cantonese, English, Hindi, Japanese,
Korean, Mandarin, Spanish, Tagalog and Vietnamese. Poll co-sponsors
included the Center for American Progress and the Leadership Conference
on Civil Rights Education Fund.
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