Chinese-Australians, media consumption, and the politics of belonging

Research in news and news consumption tells us that news operates to sustain democracy culture and facilitate a sense of belonging, but only if and when producers and audiences are ‘on the same wavelength’. At the same time, research surveys suggest that Australia’s general public and the Chinese-Australian communities are at odds when it comes to their assessments of the level of fairness and balance in Australian media’s China-related news. Given that China is Australia’s biggest trading partner while simultaneously perceived as Australia’s biggest security threat, and since China is also one of the most common countries of birth for migrants in Australia, the question naturally arises as to what extent Chinese-Australians’ news consumption shapes these migrants’ sense of belonging to Australia. Situated in the context of first-generation migrants from China, and adopting a combination of a quantitative survey, in-depth interviews, and group discussions, this paper aims to address this question about migrant belonging and media consumption. The study suggests that members of this particular Chinese-Australian cohort mostly demonstrate a sense of ‘passive belonging’, and very few of them seem to possess a sense of ‘governmental belonging’.

Read the article online here.

Note: This article was published in Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, pp. 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/10304312.2024.2439993

Related links

• Wanning Sun, First-generation PRC migrants and social cohesion: Views on news about the PRC and Chinese-Australians, Australia-China Relations Institute, University of Technology Sydney, August 30 2023. 
• Wanning Sun, 'Chinese-Australian and Chinese-American views on news: A comparative study', Australia-China Relations Institute, University of Technology Sydney, December 16 2024.