The uses of news media in the context of acculturation A quantitative study among foreign-born in Sweden.

摘要

News media are an important function in a democracy by providing news and information to thecitizens and at the same time considered to facilitate adaptation and integration into society. RecentOfficial Reports of the Swedish Government have stressed concerns regarding the developmentshowing that part of the population with a foreign background in Sweden does not use traditionalnews media. In this context, and by an increasing number of foreign-born in Sweden, the relevanceof investigating the relationship between the use of news media and integration is actualized. Inprevious national research, there has been a predominance of studies investigating the relationbetween news media and foreign-born from media’s perspective, and there is a lack of research thatfocuses on how foreign-born in Sweden use news media. It has also been stressed that digital mediaoffer complement to the traditional media, and that further research is needed on how digital mediaare being used by people with a foreign background in Sweden.The present study was carried out by using theories of acculturation, and the uses and gratificationstheory as theoretical framework in order to further explore the relation between news use andacculturation from the users’ perspective. The purpose is to deepen the understanding of howSwedish news media are being used by foreign-born and to increase the knowledge of how it isrelated to the degree of acculturation. Data was collected by conducting a survey where aquestionnaire available in Swedish, English, and Arabic, was distributed to 190 SFI students,Swedish for immigrants, at two schools in Gothenburg, Sweden. The subsequent data analysis wascarried out in SPSS for statistical comparisons. The main findings show that the SFI students areusing different acculturation strategies, and that maintaining the culture of origin is a clearelement. The most common motives for using Swedish news among the SFI students, regardless ofthe degree of acculturation, are linked to acculturation purposes. Finally, clear correlations werefound between the degree of acculturation and the use of both digital and traditional news.