Media use by immigrants in the process of cultural adaptation

This study explores the role of mass media in the cultural adaptation of immigrants to a new society. It proposes the Transitional Media Use Model to explain changes in the pattern of media use among immigrants. Through a telephone survey of 667 new Chinese immigrants to Singapore, the authors examined various aspects of cultural adaptation and their relationship with media use. In-depth interviews and focus group discussions were conducted explore the issues in depth. The findings lend support to the Transitional Media Use Model at the content level but not at the medium level. In other words, the immigrants tend to shift their attention to different type of media content but not to different type of media as they become more adapted to the host society.