Émigré News Media

Nelly Elias

News gathering and distribution are key functions of media which are further intensified in the course of migration, as immigrants reach an unfamiliar environment. While information about the host country flows regularly from media in the local language, most immigrants cannot avail themselves of such services because they have not mastered this language. They therefore require their own news sources. This need for émigré news media was revealed almost a century ago when a groundbreaking study by Robert E. Park (1922) indicated that immigrant newspapers in the United States served as a principal source of information about their new environment for immigrants who had yet to acquire the English language. This environmental surveillance function is often carried out through reports on immigration laws, taxes, legal matters, economics, etiquette and other issues, satisfying the newcomers' basic need for orientation regarding important host society events and thus helping them adjust to their ...

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