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Mediated Communication and Integration of Diasporic Communities: Toward a Theoretical Model

Abstract

This paper argues that traditional investigations of the relationship between community integration and media use have suffered from an inadequate conceptual framework. Typically, research examining the community integration hypothesis has been preoccupied with the integrative capacity of mass media, principally newspapers, in effecting integration in spatially defined communities. The concern here is with the integrative impacts of both mass and demassified media on demassified audiences, in particular diasporic populations. The conceptual content of mass and demassified audiences and media is elucidated. Additionally, occupancy of a defined geographical space as a necessary attribute of community is shown to be problematic. An explanatory typology of media use is proposed. A number of hypotheses are posited, and uses, and gratifications suggested as an appropriate theoretical foundation for empirical investigations.

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