'Fourth World' Values in a Spanish-Language Newspaper Serving an Immigrant Community

4 Journal of Global Mass Communication 5 (2012)

38 Pages Posted: 3 Sep 2009 Last revised: 29 Sep 2012

See all articles by Richard J. Peltz-Steele

Richard J. Peltz-Steele

University of Massachusetts School of Law at Dartmouth

Date Written: August 24, 2012

Abstract

This study operationalized the Four Worlds model for mass media values in a new context — that of a foreign-language newspaper serving a recent-immigrant community within a First World society, namely a Hispanic community in central Arkansas, in the United States. The study established baseline representations of previously described “First World” and “Fourth World” values in a mainstream central Arkansas newspaper, and in Cherokee and Koori newspapers. The study speculated that the central Arkansas Hispanic community exists with a measure of physical and cultural separation from mainstream society — arising from informal barriers such as socioecomomic status, residential neighborhoods, language, and racism — and that this separation is analogous to the separation of a Fourth World society from its mainstream society. Accordingly, the study predicted that El Latino content would bear greater similarity with the Fourth World baseline than with the First World baseline. The hypothesis was substantially but not wholly born out. El Latino tracked the Fourth World baselines on six of the thirteen values surveyed, First and Fourth World, and results were inconclusive on six more values, two because El Latino fell between the baselines. El Latino tracked the First World baseline on only one value: First World “oddity.” It was hoped that this study will stimulate further research into similarities between immigrant groups and Fourth World communities, that they might share in the development of innovative strategies in their common pursuit of socioeconomic development for their peoples while preserving their cultural integrity and ethnic identity.

Keywords: newspaper, news, editorial, journalism, content analysis, comparative, international, migration, immigration, immigrant, Four Worlds, Fourth World, Cherokee, Cherokee Nation, Cherokee Phoenix, Koori, Latino, Hispanic, Spanish-language, indigenous, aboriginal, Australian, Australia, Arkansas, Robie

JEL Classification: D83, I19, I29, I39, L82, O19, O20, O57, R58, Z10,

Suggested Citation

Peltz-Steele, Richard J., 'Fourth World' Values in a Spanish-Language Newspaper Serving an Immigrant Community (August 24, 2012). 4 Journal of Global Mass Communication 5 (2012), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1467193 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1467193

Richard J. Peltz-Steele (Contact Author)

University of Massachusetts School of Law at Dartmouth ( email )

333 Faunce Corner Road
North Dartmouth, MA 02747-1252
United States
15089851102 (Phone)

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