The mediating role of traditional news media and the news Web in the political socialization of Korean immigrants to the host society: Predicting political knowledge, interest, and participation.

摘要

This study employed path models to explore how Korean immigrants' education, length of stay and English fluency affect their political socialization, mediated through traditional news media and the news Web use. Political socialization included political knowledge (such as recognition of political figures, their positions, and Democrat-Republican dimensions of politics), interest (such as interest in local and U.S. politics), and participation (such as engagement in a variety of political activities). The media usage patterns included U.S. news media, U.S. news Web, Korean news Web, and Korean news Media use by Korean immigrants in the United State.;According to the result of the study, not only news media but also demographic variables played an important role in immigrants' political socialization into the host society. Among the media variables, U.S. news media was the strongest predictor of Korean immigrants' political socialization. Specifically, the greater the education level and the length of stay, the more fluent in English, the greater the U.S. news media use, and the greater the Korean immigrants' political knowledge, interest, and participation. In other words, education, length of stay, and English fluency indirectly increased political socialization through their relationship with U.S. news media use. In addition, demographic variables such as education, length of stay, and English fluency directly or indirectly affected Korean immigrants' political socialization. Among the demographic variables, length of stay was the strongest predictor of Korean immigrants' political socialization by increasing their political knowledge, interest, and participation.;Korean ethnic news media and U.S. news Web played a potentially important role in Korean immigrants' political socialization by increasing their political interest. That is, if an individual's Korean ethnic news media and U.S. news Web use increased, his or her political interest increased. However, Korean news media and U.S. news Web use were less important factors than U.S. news media use because both of them did not contribute to Korean immigrants' political knowledge and participation gain. Further, this study found that Korean news Web use may not contribute to Korean immigrants' political socialization in terms of political knowledge, interest, and participation at all.;While, among the demographic variables, length of stay was the strongest predictor of Korean immigrants' political socialization by increasing their political knowledge, interest, and participation, education and English fluency were meaningful predictors of political socialization. Education was a significant and direct predictor of political knowledge gain even though it did not contribute to the variance in either political participation or interest. English fluency played an important role in Korean immigrants' political socialization by directly increasing political interest even though it did not predict political knowledge and participation. Further, education, length of stay and English fluency played an important role in Korean immigrants' political socialization by indirectly increasing political knowledge, interest, and participation with their positive relationship with news media use (particularly U.S. host media).