Media Effects On Korean Immigrants

Annotated Bibliography Worksheet 1. Citation (ASA Style): Moon, Seung-jun and Cheong Yi Park. 2007. "Media Effects on Acculturation and Biculturalism: A Case Study of Korean Immigrants in Los Angeles' Koreatown." Mass Communication & Society 10:319-343.

2. What is the primary research question or thesis of this article? “The purpose of this research is to study how exposure to American mass media and Korean ethnic media in Los Angeles’s Koreatown is related to Korean immigrants’ acculturation process. To look at the Korean immigrants’ acculturation process, we look at immigrants’ changes of cultural values, which consist of host cultural values, called acceptance of American cultural values, and previous cultural values, called affinity for Korean cultural identity.”

3. What are the characteristics of the population studied? How many people, ages, genders, race/ethnicity/nationality, professions etc.? How were these people selected? “The average age for respondents in this sample was 27.94, and respondents ranged in age from 17 to 60 years old. Of the 191 respondents in this study, there were 107 male (56%) and 84 female (44%) participants, and the number of Korean immigrants who chose Korean and English questionnaires was 110(58%) and 81(42%), respectively.” “The six demographic variables (gender, age, marital status, American citizenship, main residence area, and age of immigration) were recalculated based on the screened subjects. The total number of adult Korean-born respondents who had immigrated to the United States after age 13 was 174 (male = 93, 53%; female = 81, 47%). Their average age was 28.21 years (SD = 7.58), and the number of participants who chose the English questionnaire and the Korean questionnaire was 105(60.3%) and 69(39.7%), respectively.”

4. What research methods was employed by the researchers? Was this appropriate for the population and the research question? Were there limitations to this method? The author “used the statistical program LISREL 8 (Jöreskog & Sörbom, 1996) to test the direct effects of media exposure on immigrants’ acculturation (acceptance of American cultural values and affinity for Korean cultural identity).” “However, some variables other than exposure to mass media, such as gender, age, marital status, American citizenship, main residence area, age of immigration, English skills (spoken skills and written skills), intention to keep living in the United States, and length of stay in the United States. ” “To control for these third level effects, a hierarchical regression analysis was run.” I think the only limitation might be the method and place of gathering the respondents' information although I do agree the church location was the best choice with the limiting factors of address uncertainty, illegal immigrants and those moving in and out of Los Angeles.

5. What were the primary findings of the research? The author states “However, based on our findings, this kind of biculturalism did not take place, perhaps because Korean mass media do not reflect Korean cultural identity exclusively. Instead, we surmise if immigrants are exposed to both American and Korean mass media rather than only Korean media, they tend to be more Americanized, because American mass media exclusively promote American cultural values. Therefore, we conclude that even though Korean immigrants in Koreatown are frequently exposed to both American and Korean media, they do not have bicultural tendencies. “

6. Critique this article, discuss method, findings, analysis, writing style, or other elements of the research project. With the increased popularity and availability of the Internet, I agree with the author about further study to include this medium. I believe the Internet is becoming the rival to television as far as affecting the acculturation process the most.